Politicians are failing to face up to the reality of climate change by promoting the idea of biofuels as a solution, according to Friends of the Earth.

Instead FoE are calling for more money to be spent on public transport and an end to road building.

Recycling used cooking oil is obviously a good idea but large-scale biofuel production would be a big mistake, they say.

Turning wheat and maize crops into biofuel will be “absolutely catastrophic” for the world’s hungriest people, says United Nations expert Jean Ziegler.

He condemned the use of farmland for biofuels as a “crime against humanity”.

He knows that food prices could rise by as much as 50% in the next 10 years if too much farmland is diverted to feeding cars rather than people.

Biofuels are good news for car makers and some multinational companies which will be able to carry on making huge profits without having to adapt to climate change and leaving ordinary people to bear the brunt of food price rises.

Clearing rain forest to grow biofuels is so destructive that the land would have to produce biofuel for 200 years before it could be considered carbon neutral.

Yet the European Union is considering a new directive to make 10% of all car, bus and lorry fuel come from biofuels by 2020.

The EU should be concentrating on renewable energy rather than biofuels, say FoE, as well as stopping road building, forcing car makers to produce clean engines, subsidising public transport and creating safer routes for cyclists and walkers.

Friends of the Earth is urging people to contact their MEPs to reject the 10% biofuels directive in favour of “more sustainable solutions” to climate change.

To find your MEP: click here