Climate change protesters attacked a series of London Tesco outlets today after the store ran an advert offering free flights.
Campaigners used stencils and green spray paint to write the words “Every Little Hurts” on the front doors of the stores in the early hours. The words appeared below a pair of energy efficient lightbulbs.
The activists were protesting about a newspaper advert offering customers clubcard points for buying energy efficient bulbs. Customers can then use the points to buy airmiles.
A Tesco spokeswoman said the advert, which used the slogan “Flights for Lights”, will not be used again.She added that customers can use clubcards to buy anything from flights to meals.
A spokeswoman for the activists, known as the Climate Suffrajets, said offering air miles as a reward for buying energy efficient lightbulbs is confusing the issue of climate change.
She added: “Energy efficient lightbulbs save tiny amounts of CO2 compared to how much one flight wastes.
“By offering air miles as a reward for making small environmental changes Tesco is confusing us about what we can really do to reduce our climate impact.
“It's like handing out a free pack of cigarettes with every nicotine patch. As long as they continue with their campaign we'll continue with ours.”
The group attacked 27 Tesco stores, including shops in Commerical Road, Goodge Street, Shoreditch High Street and Kingsland Road, Dalston.
A Tesco spokeswoman said: “Over the last year we promoted sales of energy efficient lightbulbs in the UK, trebling our range and selling over 15 million energy efficient lightbulbs in 54 weeks.
“We have permanently halved the price of the bulbs, increasing sales six fold since 2006.”
Climate change protesters hit Tesco stores with spray paint campaign
Climate change protest in Commons
Four environmental protesters have glued themselves to a statue in the Houses of Parliament.
Three women and a man have stuck their hands together to form a chain around the statue of Viscount Falkland, just yards from the Commons chamber.
The protesters, from the group Climate Rush, say it is designed to be a wake-up call for the government.
It is a protest against last week's decision to allow a new generation of coal-fuelled power stations.
Tesco launches massive new green plans
Tesco has unveiled plans to develop its contribution to sustainability with a range of green initiatives. Overall, the chain plans to pour £500 million into furthering its environmental policies. This has not been without its critics. Friends of the Earth say Tesco needs to first look at its own operations and affect on the environment, and the Climate Change Corporation has expressed suspicion as the announcement comes in the wake of Tesco's huge expansion plans.
One step Tesco is taking is to cut the cost of its energy efficient light bulbs by 50%. The chain has also committed to sticking a "carbon rating" label on each product to raise awareness, and as part of the general push to encourage customers to go green. Tesco recognises the market has become more envrionmentally aware and that people want to participate in moves that are good for the planet. The response seems to be a greater stressing on the priority of sustainability, and advocating a low-carbon economy. Marks and Spencer has also pledged £200 million for the same cause.
Tesco has planned to review its carbon footprint more rigorously, which currently stands at two million tonnes of C02 annually. The chain is following in the fort steps of Wal-Mart, and indeed Tesco's American arm, Fresh 'n' easy, has adopted the use of solar panels at its distribtution sites.
Here, the chain also hopes to cut energy by 50% per sq ft. As part of the funds be ing set aside for the initiatives, £5 miilion will go toward a new Insitute for Sustainable Consumption, which will be devoted to researching better ways to preserve the environment. This is to be in conjunjtion with the University of Manchester. £100 million is also to be spent on developing low-carbon technologies.
Although Tesco has met with accusations of dominating the market and squeezing suppliers at home and abroad (Indonesia, for example), these developments are unprecedented and mark a new outlook for the group.
South-East Asia among 'most vulnerable' to climate change
Bangkok - With 80 per cent of South-east Asia's 563 million people living within 100 kilometres of the coastline, the region is among the "most vulnerable" to climate change, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) warned Monday. South-East Asia, responsible for about 12 per cent of the global greenhouse gas emissions, can expect to see an average temperature rise by 4.8 degrees Celsius and a 70-centimetre increase in sea levels by the year 2100 if no serious measures aretaken to halt global warming,a regional survey on the economic effects of climate change, released in Bangkok, said.
The report, which took 15 months to compile, provides a detailed forecast on the negative economic and social impact of climate change on Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam over the coming decades if the world community fails to act on greenhouse gas emissions.
Climate change is already evident in the region, where the average temperature rose 0.1 to 0.3 degrees Celsius between 1951 to 2000, the sea level is rising 1-3 millimetres a year and in the frequency of extreme weather events witnessed in recent decades, the report noted.
The worst is yet to come.
"If the world continues 'business as usual' by 2100 the cost of preventing the problems we are looking at will be equivalent of 6.7 per cent of combined gross domestic product, more than twice the global average loss," ADB assistant chief economist Juzhong Zhuang said.
South-East Asia is deemed particularly vulnerable to climate change because of its long coastlines and high reliance on the agricultural sector which still employs 43 per cent of the labour force.
While climate change is expected to result in declining rainfall in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam over the next three decades, the Philippines will see increased precipitation throughout the century, the ADB report said.
Rice production in the region could decline 50 per cent by 2100, unless adaptation measures are implemented such as switching to drought- and flood-resistant strains of rice, it warned.
"The rice yield decline would range from 34 per cent in Indonesia to 75 per cent in the Philippines, with the decline projected to start in 2020 for most countries," it said.
"South-East Asian governments need to invest now in adaptation measures such as coastal zones, sea wall and in the agricultural sector in drought and flood resistant crops," ADB vice president Ursula Shaeffer-Preuss said.
Besides investing in adaptation measures, the region also needs to get serious about reducing it own emissions of greenhouse gases.
In 2000, South-East Asia accounted for 5,187 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, or 9.3 tons per annum per capita, compared with the world average of 6.1 tons.
Of that, 75 per cent was accounted for by "land use change and forestry," a category that covers the mass destruction of forest lands in Indonesian and Malaysia to plant palm oil plantations over the past two decades as the world demand for palm oil has soared.
Indonesia in 2000 accounted for 59 per cent of the region's greenhouse gas emissions, Thailand 6 per cent, Philippines 4 per cent, Vietnam 2 per cent, Singapore 1 per cent and the rest of South-East Asia 28 per cent.
Malaysia's data was not included in the ADB report.
Indonesia's former environmental minister, Emil Salim, a leading economist who helped compile the ADB report, said it will require political will and persuasiveness to alter the region's past practices.
"You mist hit hard and say if we don't do anything on this then you and I will all suffer," Salim advised his government. "Common language is crucial, not this language we use in this report," he told a press conference.
Salim advised regional governments to make climate change part of this fiscal stimulus packages being introduced this year to counter the global recession.
