Between now and 8th March, European politicians will decide whether to introduce higher targets for biofuels without environmental safeguards, and whether rainforest destruction and peat drainage are a price we should pay for 'alternative transport fuels'.

In the last two days, over 50 organisations have signed an open letter to European politicians, demanding that biofuel targets be abandoned, as well as other incentives which encourage biofuels linked to rainforests, environmental pollution, high greenhouse gas emissions and, in some cases, human rights abuses.

You can find the text and list of signatories here:  http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/2007Jan31-openletterbiofuels.pdf .

We are hoping to collect lots more signatures. If you belong to an organisation or a local group which would like to sign, please send an email to  info@biofuelwatch.org.uk.

Meantime, German activists have organised a letter-writing campaign to the German Chancellor, since Germany currently holds the EU Presidency. They would like support from European colleagues. The action alert itself is here  http://www.regenwald.org/protestaktion.php?id=126 but you'll probably want to read the translation first and maybe send off your own letter, which you can do by looking here:  http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/AMerkelalert1.doc .

Please circulate this widely. Many thanks