Colombia Solidarity Campaign

Public Meeting:

When: Tuesday, 4th October 2011, 6.30-9.30pm

Where: Lumen URC  Hall, 88 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9RS (close to St Pancras Station)

Speakers:

+ Elias Mtinda, Food Rights Coordinator for ActionAid Tanzania:Impacts of biofuels, including jatropha on communities and food sovereignty in Tanzania

+ Emilia Hanna, Biofuelwatch: Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) for biomass and biofuels in the UK – Impact on power station developments and of biomass effects on forests, communities and climate

+ Kenneth Richter, Agrofuel Campaigner, Friends of the Earth: What
do ROCs for biofuels mean for communities affected by the expansion of
oil palm and jatropha plantations?

+ UK biomass burning and the growth of industrial tree plantations in the South – Speaker tbc

  – Free public event, no pre-booking required -

Background:The event will coincide with and discuss a forthcoming government consultation about subsidies – Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) – for ‘renewable electricity’, including biofuels and biomass, which have led to many biofuel and biomass power stations being proposed across the UK.   Under government plans, annual subsidies for those could top £3 billion, paid out of all our fuel bill.

Biofuelwatch is actively campaigning for ROCs to be withdrawn for both biofuels and biomass and information about how to get involved will be available at the meeting.

Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs), have led to a large number of planning applications, many of which approved already, for biofuel and biomass (mainly wood) power stations across the UK.

For example, in Bristol and Portland, W4B has had plans for two large palm oil power stations approved despite strong local and national opposition, including local authority opposition in Bristol.  The Bristol power station alone would, if built, double the use of palm oil in UK biofuels overnight.

Companies such as MGT Power, Prenergy, Helius Energy and Forth Energy are planning to build biomass power stations which could be larger than any that exist worldwide today.  Virtually all of the wood will be imported, which will directly or indirectly, lead to more logging and more industrial tree plantations at the expense of tropical forests, grasslands and communities in countries such as Brazil, the Republic of Congo or Ghana.