alternative fuels

BP's announcement of record profits masks major flaws in the company's long term investment strategy, according to analysts at Greenpeace and PLATFORM.

Strong growth recorded in the first half of 2008 was undermined by a collapse in profits during the final quarter, indicating a vulnerability to oil price fluctuations which will continue while BP remains wedded to an “oil at any cost” strategy.

A misjudged push for 'green' fuels could instead damage the climate and trash rainforests, according to the UK's largest environmental and development groups today.

Biofuels - which are similar to petrol but less environmentally damaging because they are made from crops and wastes - could play an important role in tackling global warming. But, say bosses from the RSPB, WWF, Greenpeace, Oxfam and Friends of the Earth, the government's dash for biofuels is ill thought out, lacks appropriate safeguards and could be creating more problems than it solves.

In response to today's announcement by the government that they have rejected plans to build what would have been England's largest windfarm at Whinash in Cumbria, Stephen Tindale, Executive Director of Greenpeace, said:

"Any Government that wants to expand airports and turn down windfarms is simply not fit to govern. It's hard to believe that the nuclear industry has not played some role in this.

Three world leaders in food and soft drinks today promised to phase out the powerful global warming gases, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in their refrigeration equipment (1). The announcement comes 11 years after Greenpeace showed the world that the future of cooling could become climate-friendly.

In a joint conference in Brussels, Unilever, Coca-Cola and McDonald's presented their programme for the beginning of the end of HFCs. Their initiative is supported by Greenpeace and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).