Guide to Meeting with Your MP About Drax’s Data Centres

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Influencing your MP

An MP has tens of thousands of constituents, and many political issues competing for their attention. How can we make them pause to look at the bigger picture and recognise that climate change should be high on their priorities?

One of the most effective things to do is actually to go and see your MP.  Many MPs hold regular sessions called surgeries where they meet with constituents to talk about issues of concern. Your MP’s website, or your local library, may have more information about when and where surgeries are taking place. Otherwise please contact your MP's office to enquire about surgeries. For more details on how to contact your MP see: www.parliament.uk/get-involved/contact-an-mp-or-lord/contact-your-mp/

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Do your research about your MP

It's important to understand their perspective: if you can approach from an angle they are already sympathetic with, there is a much higher chance of getting your message across. You can find out what they have been saying in Parliament at www.theyworkforyou.com, Google for media appearances, and some MPs' Twitter accounts are also very informative.

Key points to look for:

• Do they have an official position within the government? 
• Are they on any Select Committees? 
• What are their passions? 
• Have they made any statements on the environment generally?
• Can you find a way to relate the issue to anything locally? (e.g. false claims about job creation, air pollution, wasting bill payers money during a cost of living crisis)

What are the key messages to get across?

• There should be no Drax-powered data centres
• Drax is the UK’s single largest carbon emitter, burning roughly the equivalent of 25 million trees per year - this does not help us decarbonise
• Burning woody biomass emits as much or more carbon than coal 
• Adding carbon capture technology to Drax’s tree burning would not help us reach our Net Zero goals, even if the technology worked (which it doesn’t) 
• Green subsidies should be going to genuine renewables and real climate action that would bring down bills and emissions 

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Plan (with others if you can)

If you know others in your area who are concerned about this issue in particular - or can find allies from other environmental campaigns prepared to come along with you, it can be beneficial to see your MP with a group of constituents. Don’t worry if you can’t find anyone to join you, you can still make a big impact alone!

If you are going with others it’s worth considering:

• Who is going to ask what question? 
• What are your individual strengths? For example one person might be an 'expert', another good at staying calm under pressure, another be someone the MP might not see as a 'usual suspect'. 

If you’re going alone then it’s worth having a think in advance about: 

• What order do you want to raise things?
• What are the key things that you think will resonate with your particular MP that you want to make sure you have time to include?
• Are there any areas of the key messages you feel a bit unsure of? 

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During the meeting

Listen first. Don't leap in with the most controversial issue, try to find some common ground and build on that. Can you frame it so the MP can be your ally?

Then try to make your arguments using their language and values. In many cases this will be the first time that anyone has spoken to your MP about this issue face to face. Allow them to feel like you are helping inform their position, rather than arguing against an assumption of what they already think. Acknowledge concerns they raise rather than dismissing them out of hand. Then you can present alternative viewpoints.

It can be incredibly frustrating when people don't 'get it'. But to persuade you need to be persuasive, hectoring or getting angry will simply turn people away from what you are trying to get across to them. Your passion when talking is important, but one must not be so passionate that the message is lost.

Make the MP feel that they would not be going out on a limb by doing the action you are asking for or supporting your campaign. We like to know that people like us already agree with an argument - most of the political parties do not support large-scale burning trees for electricity, nor does the public!

Take some notes with you including the key points you want to express, and relevant evidence or arguments to back it up. 

If you can, ask your MP to commit to doing something before the meeting is over. This could be asking a question in Parliament or writing to the Government opposing plans for Drax-powered data centres. You might like to ask your MP for a photo together which you can share on social media or send to your local paper. 

Right now our main ask to MPs is that they write to Ed Miliband, the Secretary of State for the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero to express their concerns about proposed Drax-powered data centres, including the joint AI Growth Zone bid and independently built tree burning data centres. 

If you need any support thinking about what the best thing to ask your MP is please contact stopburningtreescoalition@gmail.com.

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Key Talking Points for MP Outreach

Below are some key points to raise to make the case to oppose any Drax powered data centre, alongside Drax's dirty energy more broadly. Use the tips above to understand which issues your MP may care most about - and which ones you're most passionate about! 

Climate 

• Drax is the UK’s single biggest carbon emitter, emitting over 14 Mt of CO2 in 2025 
• Drax’s emissions are higher than 29 countries 
• Burning woody biomass emits just as much, if not more, carbon than coal 
• It takes 44-104 years for new trees to reabsorb the carbon emitted by burning trees at Drax: this is time we do not have 
• Woody biomass is currently counted as carbon neutral by the Government, in contrary to the advice of the IPCC which specifically warns against assuming the carbon neutrality of biomass.

Subsidies 

• Subsidising Drax is the opposite of value for money 
• In 2025 Drax received £999 million in subsidies 
• Drax has currently received approximately £7bn in green subsidies - through a levy on energy bills meant for real renewables 

Data Centre 

• AI Growth Zone criteria favours low-carbon energy infrastructure - Drax is not low-carbon
• If this proposed site went ahead it would mean more forests burnt, communities polluted and higher carbon emissions 
• Research shows the AIGZ would burn 2.5 million tonnes of pellets a year, doubling to 5 million tonnes after 2030
• Data centres offer a lifeline for Drax to continue polluting and go against recent subsidy decision to reduce Drax’s generation 

Environmental Justice

• Communities in the Southeastern USA are harmed by air pollution emitted by wood pellet mills that supply Drax and other UK power stations. 
• Pellet plants are 50% more likely to be sited in “environmental justice” communities (i.e. predominantly non-white communities living below the poverty line) 
• Pellet plants release PM2.5 air pollution (fine dust), nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic compounds associated with a wide range of health issues. 
• Drax has been repeatedly accused of driving environmental racism 
• Drax violated environmental regulations over 18,000 times in the US between 2014 and 2024 and breached environmental laws 189 times at its Canadian pellet mills.

BECCS 

• BECCS will not generate ‘negative emissions’ - this claim is based upon the deeply flawed carbon accounting logic that counts it as carbon neutral already 
• Large scale BECCS does not exist for woody biomass 
• Even if BECCS worked, it would not help us achieve our 2050 decarbonisation targets - the impacts on forests and reduction in their carbon absorption means CO2 would increase for decades 
• BECCS is prohibitively expensive - Ember estimates that BECCS at Drax would cost £43bn over its lifetime (approx. £1500 per household) 

Just Transition 

• Yorkshire and the UK deserve real green jobs - research shows there are over 73,000 direct green jobs needed to decarbonise Yorkshire over the next 10 years 
• Drax claims BECCS will create 10,000 jobs however, this figure only applies to peak construction and includes indirect and induced jobs - once built, BECCS would require just 375 staff whilst costing the public £43bn 
• Green subsidies should be going to genuine renewables and real climate action that would bring down bills and emissions

Forests & Biodiversity 

• In 2025 Drax burnt 7.5 Mt of wood pellets - equivalent to about 27 million trees per year 
• Drax sources from vital and protected forests around the world
• Canada: Drax has been repeatedly exposed for sourcing from primary and old-growth forests, threatening the habitats of rare and endangered species such as Caribou and Black Bears
• US: Drax is routinely sourcing from mature, biodiverse hardwood forests in one of just two Global Biodiversity Hotspots in the US and the area contains at least 30 protected and/or imperilled bird species, including the Wood Stork, Bachman’s Warbler, and the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
• Estonia: Estonia’s land sector has recently started to release more carbon than it absorbs due to logging, with the Government predicting this will remain the case until 2050