Local campaigners staged a protest outside Tesco's petrol station last Saturday 26th January to highlight Tesco's use of biofuel in their petrol because Tesco are the biggest retailer of biofuels in the UK. Tesco also own a 25% stake in Greenergy, who claim to be the biggest supplier of biofuels in the UK. In case any of you have missed the latest Government and media reports on biofuel use, the basic facts are that biofuels are worse for the climate than fossil fuels because they are derived from monoculture crops of palm oil, soya and sugar cane - all grown in the tropics on land that used to be rainforests. Even in Europe, the most efficient crop for biofuels, which is rapeseed oil, has now been shown to have greenhouse gas emissions of up to 70% higher than fossil fuels. Biofuels not only create climate change, they require massive amounts of water, reduce soil quality and are linked to human rights abuses, biodiversity loss and issues over food security.Biofuel is all about industry and business and making money out of climate change - it is NOT about reducing emissions, so is yet another wrong turn.
We need to rethink our addiction to economic growth before it's too late....
