SIR – Time for some home truths to counter the big business and Government combo scam on bio-fuels.

I have spent some time working on the International Institute for Sustainable Development’s study for 2013. Deforestation, fertilisers and fossil fuels used in the production of bio-fuels would emit 54 Mt of CO2, so 92 per cent of ‘saved’ CO2 is emitted elsewhere. For bio-diesel, the net effect would be an increase in emissions. Total EU savings therefore would be one-tenth of one per cent of the total. The cost to taxpayers is £6 billion a year.

These costs are expected to reach £10.7 billion per year. Current EU bio-fuels take up an area of European farmland equivalent to Belgium and uses as much water as twice the volume of the Thames.

Moreover plants used are usually poplar, willow and eucalyptus, which emits an air pollutant called isoprene.

We are burning food to produce bio-diesel fuel putting an estimated 30 million people into starvation globally.

Why? Billions of pounds in subsidies and tax breaks. It’s a scam, people, not to mention no global warming since 1997, so the whole game is pointless.

Godfrey Bloom, MEP for Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire, Main Street, Wressle, Selby