Welcome to our latest newsletter of 2022, full of updates about campaigns that we – and you – have been supporting, and policy developments.
Biofuelwatch NEWSLETTER June 2022 is out now! Take action on calling Barclays to Drop Drax, see pictures from the International day of action, read updates from California and lots more… Click To Tweet1. International Day of Action
2. BlackRock Briefing
3.Barclays Drop Drax
4.Report from California
5. Case study on Omega Green Biofuels Refinery in Paraguay
6. Cut Carbon Not Forests (CCNF)
7. Burned screening – 28th June
8. Drax BECCS planning application
1. International Day of Action
Thank you to everyone who took part, in person and online, in the international day of action on the 27th April 2022. We have shared some pictures from the day, which you can by clicking the button below. Thank you for supporting us in sending a collective message to both Vattenfall and Drax that burning wood from trees is not low-carbon and harms forest ecosystems.
2.BlackRock Briefing
Biofuelwatch is pleased to share our latest briefing about BlackRock’s harmful investments in energy from forest and tree plantation wood. The briefing which you can see by clicking the button below highlights BlackRock’s investment in Drax, Graanul Invest, Albioma S.A. and Arauco.
3.Barclays Drop Drax
There is still time to support our campaign to ask Barclays to put an end to its financing of and investment in Drax and its projects, which enables Drax to continue to destroy forests across the globe and exacerbate the climate crisis. Please click the button below which has more information including a letter which you can complete and send to Barclays, and how you can help share the ‘Better without Barclays’ campaign through social media.
4.Report from California
Our colleague in California, Gary Hughes, has written a report on the appeal hearings for permitting the conversion of refineries in the San Francisco Bay area to make fuel from food. The joint venture at the currently shuttered Martinez refinery, and the Phillips 66 refinery in Rodeo announced their refinery conversion projects in the summer of 2020. In nearly simultaneous fashion both projects have been guided through the required environmental review process under the California Environmental Quality Act, bureaucratically overseen by Contra Costa County land use authorities while closely managed politically by the administration of Governor Gavin Newsom and the California Air Resources Board, the primary agency responsible for implementing climate policy in the state. You can read Gary’s full report below.
5. Case study on Omega Green Biofuels Refinery in Paraguay
This case study examines the Omega Green project: the first so-called advanced biofuel refinery in South America. It is being built by the Brazilian company ECB in Paraguay, a small South American country characterized by its tropical forests and abundant water. The refinery, one of the world’s largest to date, aims to primarily produce aviation biofuels in a country with very little demand for them. The main feedstocks for the refinery are expected to be soybean oil, animal fats from the export beef slaughter industry and pongamia oil.
6. Cut Carbon Not Forests (CCNF)
We are still encouraging everyone to sign or share the petition from the Cut Carbon Not Forests coalition, of which Biofuelwatch is part, telling the government to stop burning trees for energy. It has over 30,000 signatures, and we’d love to see that number get even higher.
7: Burned Screening – 28th June
We are pleased to share that PEAT (Peninsula Environmental Action Together) will be holding an online screening of the film Burned: Are Trees the New Coal? Tuesday, June 28th, 2022 from 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM BST. You can register below by visiting the eventbrite page here.
If you, or a group you are part of, are interested in organising a screening of this award-winning documentary please email us at biofuelwatch@gmail.com. We will try to organise guest speakers from wood pellet-sourcing regions shown in the film
8: DRAX BECCS PLANNING APPLICATION – WATCH THE SPACE!
Drax has submitted an application to the planning inspectorate to develop BECCS at its Selby site. The application is currently being reviewed, and we expect it to go out to public consultation in the next few weeks. We, along with other groups, will be objecting to the application and will call on our supporters to do so too. We’ll be in touch once the consultation has opened to help guide you through the process of objecting!