CAMPAIGNERS from Worcester's Friends of the Earth joined a nationwide protest to boycott an international oil company.

The Larkhill Service Station on London Road, Worcester, was targeted on Saturday as part of Stop Esso Day.

The environmental campaigners leafleted car drivers and other members of the public as part of the Esso boycott.

People concerned about global warming targeted hundreds of petrol stations across the country.

Protocol

It was an attempt to draw attention to Esso's apparent effort to stop a world agreement to tackle the problem.

Esso is the biggest corporation in the world and lobbied the US to pull out of the Kyoto protocol, drawn up after an Earth summit.

"Action is needed now to stop global warming," said Peter James, Worcester FOE campaigner.

"Esso must stop opposing urgent global agreements to tackle this problem.

"Esso thinks it's too big for the rest of us to stop it wrecking the planet. It's wrong."

A spokesman for Esso in Britain said it was "nonsense" the global corporation could have that much power over the US Government.

"The decision that Kyoto was not the way forward for the US was taken by the US senate in 1997, before President Bush came to power," said media relations manager, David Eglinton, adding reports Esso had given President Bush millions of dollars were "rubbish".

"We really are quite concerned about this campaign because there's a lot of disinformation.

"The environmentalists think we aren't doing anything about the problem when in fact we take the issue extremely seriously and are taking our own actions to tackle carbon dioxide emissions."