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Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire was once the UK’s largest coal-fired power plant. Starting in 2003, it was gradually converted to run on biomass, and it now burns millions of tonnes of imported wood pellets every year.
This was sold as a green alternative to fossil fuels, and since 2014 Drax has already pocketed billions in government subsidies on that basis.
But in reality, Drax’s green credentials are based on dodgy accounting – burning biomass for power in this way emits just as much if not more carbon pollution as coal or gas.
Drax is the UK's single largest carbon emitter, emitting more carbon dioxide than 29 countries, and world's biggest tree burner (woody biomass burning power station). Drax's actions have been repeatedly linked to driving environmental racism and causing huge amounts of harm to communities, forests and biodiversity.
Drax’s current subsidies are due to run out in 2027, and the UK Government has just announced brand new subsidies for Drax and Lynemouth from 2027-2031. Alongside this reckless decision, Drax is lobbying hard for more subsidies to fund unproven carbon capture and storage technology (BECCS). The Government announcement included a commitment to fully review their BECCS policy and future funding arrangements - this gives us the opportunity to put an end once and for all to Drax’s dirty scam.
Drax sources its wood pellets predominantly from North America (particularly Southeastern US and British Columbia), the Baltic States and Brazil. Drax owns their own pellet production sites in the US and Canada (including Pinnacle Pellets) and is also supplied by Enviva, the world's biggest pellet producer.
Drax has been found to be sourcing their wood pellets from primary forests in British Columbia, from protected forests in Estonia, and biodiverse forests in the Southern US. A recent BBC investigation found yet another example of Drax sourcing from primary and old-growth forests in Canada. They also source from monoculture pine plantations in the US, and from waste wood or residuals from the timber industry. Drax's stats suggest that at least half of their pellets come from whole trees. In 2023 Drax sourced 8 million tonnes of biomass and burned 6 million tonnes of wood pellets - roughly equivalent to 27 million trees.
Sadly, no. Alongside being the cause of huge amounts of clear felling, Drax emits huge amounts of carbon. Per unit of energy generated, wood biomass emits as much or more carbon than coal. The carbon payback period (regrowth and reabsorption of carbon by trees) is estimated to be between 44-104 years. So even if you could guarantee that every tree taken was replaced (which of course Drax can't), carbon absorption in the future is no help in dealing with the emergency we are facing in the present.
Drax is able to get away with this because woody biomass is counted as carbon neutral under international carbon accounting rules, and emissions from burning the trees are supposed to be counted in the countries they come from under land use emissions. This loophole allows Drax and other tree burners to count this energy as carbon neutral. This is despite overwhelming scientific evidence that burning wood is just as bad or worse than burning fossil fuels.
"The goal to halt and reverse the global loss of nature could fail due to the growing pressure on forests from this industry" - From 'Scientists urge end to burning forest biomass for energy for sake of nature and biodiversity: Letter to work leaders ahead of COP27' signed by over 670 scientisits (2022)
The use of woody biomass for power "is not effective in mitigating climate change and may even increase the risk of dangerous climate change' - European Academies Sciences Advisory Council (2021)
"Assuming biofuels are carbon neutral may worse irreversible impacts of climate change" - Sterman et al. (2018) Environmnetal Research Letters
"Old-growth forests in British Columbia are almost gone because of 70 years of logging to feed sawmills and pulp mills, and Drax is helping push our remaining ones off the cliff, alng with our native biodiversity" - Michelle Connolly, Ecologist (2024)
"IPCC Guidelines do not automatically consider or assume biomass used for energy as 'carbon neutral', even in cases where the biomass is thought to be produced sustainably" - Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Taskforce on National Greenhouse Gas Inventories FAQs
"To help manage uncertainties and risks associated with CO2 removal at large scales, our dependence on it should be limited by reducing emissions faster." - The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal (2023)
"By 1850, the use of wood for bioenrgy helped drive the near deforestation of western Europe, even when Europeans consumed far less energy than they do today. Although coal helped to save the forests of Europe, the solution to replacing coal is not to go back to burning forests, but instead to replace fossil fuels with low carbon sources, such as solar and wind." - From 'Letter from scientists to the EU Parliament regarding forest biomass' signed by over 770 scientists (2018)
"There should be no role for large-scale unabated biomass generation beyond expiry of existing subsidy support in 2027." - 'Delivering a reliable decarbonised power system' Climate Change Committee (2023)
Your energy bills! Drax's polluting business is only viable with huge amounts of public subsidy.
Due to the classification of wood biomass as carbon neutral and a renewable form of fuel, this allows biomass power stations to receive huge amounts of renewable energy subsidies. Drax receives two types of subsidies - Renewable Obligation Certificates (ROCs) and Contracts for Difference (CfDs). A large part of these subsidies come from a surcharge on our energy bills, known as the 'green levy'. This is meant to subsidise real renewable energy, not Drax's dirty pollution.
In 2024, whilst making record profits for the third year in a row, Drax received around £700m in subsidies and made £3 million in profit every day. This came on the back of Drax making record profits in 2023 (£1.2bn - up from £731m in 2022, and £398m in 2021). In 2021 Drax received £893m in subsidies - the reason for the decrease in 2022 and 2023 is the sharp rise in energy prices - we’re now seeing subsidies climb back up.
Drax’s subsidies were due to expire in 2027, the Government has now granted new subsidies to Drax lasting from 2027-31. By 2031 Drax will have received a massive £11bn to £12bn in green subsidies - with the public footing the cost.
On February 10th 2025, the Labour Government announced a new round of subsidies for Drax, that take it from 2027 to 2031; therefore extending the current subsidy program, and giving them security to continue in their current business model. This is in large part due to a massive lobbying effort from Drax and other polluting companies, and flies in the face of Labour's own climate goals.
Drax will only be subsidised on 27% of their generation capacity (half of what they were previously subsidised for, and therefore better than the arrangement prior to Feb 24). Depending on energy prices, this should mean that trees will be burned at a slower rate from 2027 to 2031. However, this is only related to what is subsidised by the government and not a legal restriction on how many trees they burn.
The announcement did mark a shift in tone of the Government to Drax. Much of the media framed this decision as a halving of Drax's current subsidies. But these are based on a series of convenient assumptions around future energy prices and inflation, and don't really give the full picture:
This is despite acknowledging the concerns of campaigners and communities, including the work of the Stop Burning Trees Coalition and many of our partners, around where Drax sources pellets from (although made no mention of the frontline communities that Drax impacts). The Government has said that all subsidised generation must use ‘100% sustainable biomass’ - up from 70% previously. However:
Drax is currently lobbying for even more subsidies to, in the future, install unproven Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) technology. They have been granted planning permission to build BECCS on two of their generators. However, BECCS has never worked at scale, won't solve Drax's carbon emissions, and will encourage continued harm to forests, biodiversity, communities and the climate.
Due to the way wood biomass emissions are counted, Drax (and the Government) believe this will be able to deliver 'negative emissions' allowing them to offset other areas (fossil fuels, hard to decarbonise sectors etc). This is despite the fact that BECCS for wood biomass does not exist anywhere in the world, the few trials that have been done have been extremely small and there is no evidence that BECCS can work at scale.
Recent research shows that, “Drax will keep raising the levels of carbon emissions in the atmosphere until the 2050s despite using carbon capture technology.” This is because left to themselves, trees continue to grow, and would capture carbon faster than occurs on that land after harvesting, even if new trees are planted. Drax claims of negative emissions relies on fundamentally flawed carbon accounting loopholes which claim burning trees is already ‘carbon neutral’ – despite it emitting as much carbon as gas or coal. The new study found “that the intensive forest management needed to source 7m tonnes of wood pellets from forests in the US to burn as fuel every year would erode the carbon stored in the ecosystems of these pine forests for at least 25 years”.
We already have proven carbon capture – trees! Cutting them down, shipping them around the world and burning them in the UK destroys vital carbon sinks at the time when we need them most.
Four fundamental problems with Drax's plan to install carbon capture and storage:
The Government is currently deciding on funding mechanisms for BECCS, with the proposed one being dual CfDs - giving one subsidy for energy production and one for capturing carbon. This creates the very real possibility that Drax (and Lynemouth) could receive subsidies for business as usual without needing to capture any carbon.
Drax’s ability to capture carbon is looking ever more unlikely. Drax’s partner C-Capture, has just announced mass redundancies due to a lack of funding and as reported by staff members failures to meet capture targets in testing. This follows the same line as we’ve seen with CCS around the world - it is eye-wateringly expensive and fails to do as promised at every turn. But polluters keep pushing for it because they know it’s a way to take as much money from Governments as possible, whilst doing nothing to actually reduce emissions.
As part of the new subsidies decision, the Government committed to fully reviewing the role of BECCS in UK energy generation going forward. The Climate Change Committee’s 7th Carbon Budget marked a significant reduction in the use of BECCS - almost fivefold, and committed to an end of imported woody biomass by 2050. Whilst we need to go further - and much faster - it is clear the tide is turning against woody biomass and BECCS. Now is the time to make sure these subsidies end for good.
A recent report demonstrates that by 2050 the area of forest required for UK bioenergy plans (17.7m hectares) could be nearly as much land as the whole UK (24m hectares).
The world is experiencing a climate and biodiversity crisis. Each one a threat to the integrity and liveability of the earth system. To stop the devastating decline in biodiversity we have to stop encroaching on wild nature. To solve climate change we have to increase not decrease natural carbon sinks like forests. Given the UK already imports around 40% of its food its international land footprint is already huge.
Renewables like solar and wind require little or no forest or agricultural land and can be constructed in places where they have no or minimal impact on biodiversity. Even solar pv on farmland produces over 40 times more power than the same land growing biomass for electricity. Using lots of land for bioenergy squeezes scarce agricultural and forestry land, pushing up the price of food and reducing the critical function of natural carbon sinks.
Labour makes a persuasive argument that importing oil and gas reduces the UK’s energy security. The same argument can and should be made for Drax which imports around 99% of the wood pellets it burns. Drax mainly imports from countries allied to the UK but these imports still leave the country exposed to political change and shifts in the energy consumption, land use and climate patterns of other countries. This leaves the UK vulnerable to price shocks and sky high energy bills.
Rather than relying on imported energy, an electricity grid built on UK renewables and storage massively increases the UK’s energy security.
The Government’s recent Clean Power Action Plan 2030 shows that we can reach clean power by 2030 without Drax as it demonstrates that a minimum of 2GW biomass power capacity is required, but we already have over 3.6 GW of existing biomass (including biogas) capacity without Drax and Lynemouth, nearly all of it from domestic biomass feedstock.
The new subsidies only apply to large generators (minimum electric capacity of 100 MW) so medium-size biomass and biogas power plants will lose subsidies once existing awards expire, and likely have to close down. This will apply to 38 plants by April 2031. This choice inherently weakens our energy security, making the UK more dependent on imported biomass, vulnerable to international price shocks and is more polluting.
Drax has been repeatedly accused of driving environmental racism and climate colonialism.
A recent investigation found that Drax has broken environmental regulations over 11,000 times in the US. Making wood pellets emits huge amounts of VOCs and hazardous air pollutants (the worst quantified level in the US); including PM2.5, PM10 and formaldehyde. These pollutants are linked to respiratory and pulmonary issues, and many of them are cancer causing. Wood pellet production is twice as likely to be located in ‘environmental justice’ communities, predominantly Black, low-income and politically marginalised communities already suffering the legacy of colonialism.
Surveys of community members living locally to pellet production sites find that the majority of people living close to pellet mills experience dust every day and that air pollution and dust concerns prevent them from regularly doing things outdoors. The majority (86%) of surveyed households reported at least one family member diagnosed with one or more diseases associated with wood pellet mill pollution. Forest degradation also destroys natural barriers that mitigate the most severe consequences of weather events; with the loss of forests leaving communities more vulnerable to severe floods.
Burning wood in UK power stations also releases harmful PM 2.5 particulates, which according to the World Health Organisation, there is no safe level of these particulates for human health. Drax was also found to be one of the top 5 emitters in Europe of PM10 air pollution from power stations, with PM10 being linked to heart and lung diseases.
Broadly speaking, green colonialism is the practice of appropriating and exploiting land and resources for environmental purposes in a way that results in unjust development, including harm to health, extraction of vital resources, exploitation of labour and displacement.
In the case of Drax, what we see is a UK corporation, funded by the UK Government, extracting resources (vital forests) from the Southern US and Canada (often from unceded indigenous land) to claim green credentials in the UK. The emissions from burning trees are not counted in the UK, nor are the devastating health impacts caused by the woody biomass industry primarily impacting people in the UK. Instead, the UK is exporting both emissions and the health impacts of the tree burning industry abroad, whilst claiming the so-called benefits.
When looking at the siting of wood pellet production sites in the Southern US, there is almost a direct overlap with historical sites of cotton picking and slavery. What we're seeing in these maps, is what US environmental justice campaigners have likened to 'modern day slavery' where instead of importing cotton, the UK is importing wood pellets. The communities being harmed by Drax's wood pellet production are primarily Black, low income communities that have been exploited, harmed and marginalised for centuries. This is now happening in the name of false green energy for the UK.
Drax has repeatedly demonstrated that it cannot be trusted by the public, bill payers or the government.
In August 2024 Drax paid £25 million to Ofgem over misreporting of its sustainability data. In February 2025, yet another BBC investigation found another year of sourcing misreporting that was not investigated by Ofgem.
In 2023 a Bloomberg investigation found that when energy prices rocketed Drax exploited a subsidy loophole to avoid paying bill payers back £639m in order to maximise profits.
Drax’s own climate advisors have called on Drax to stop describing burning woody biomass as ‘carbon neutral’ – disputing the whole claim that Drax’s business model rests upon.
Following multiple investigations by BBC Panorama exposing Drax’s sourcing from Primary and Old-Growth forests in British Columbia, it was exposed in Drax’s own internal emails that they acknowledge it was ‘highly likely’ they had burnt wood sourced from old forest areas in Canada deemed to be environmentally important.
In 2024, Drax handed £300 million to shareholders from their half-year profits, whilst receiving £393m in public subsidies: our energy bills are funding Drax’s shareholders.
A huge impact! The demand for biomass energy in the UK is causing significant harm to forests globally, threatening vulnerable wildlife and ecosystems. Rising demand has increased logging activities, including clearcutting, which causes severe damage to forest habitats and drives environmental degradation.
Years of on-the-ground investigations show that wood entering UK bioenergy markets is routinely sourced from clearcuts of mature, biodiverse forests in the US Southeast which is home to the North American Coastal Plain a designated Global Biodiversity Hotspot. This provides habitat to numerous imperilled species, including the Red Wolf, Cerulean Warbler, Louisiana black bear and Gopher Tortoise.
As seen, Drax has been repeatedly exposed for sourcing from old-growth and primary forests in British Columbia. Logging for biomass puts additional strain on imperilled species like the Woodland Caribou, Canada Lynx, and pine marten. The boreal forest is home to over 3 billion birds that rely on it for nesting and breeding, many of which are under extinction threat.
Multiple investigations have found that Drax is sourcing from Natura 2000 areas and wood pellets have come from Woodland Key Habitat forests, and that this harvesting has harmed rare and declining bird species including disturbing nesting. Species under threat include the European Bison, flying squirrels, capercaillie and black stork.
At a time when we are seeing severe ecological decline around the world, subsidising biomass is driving forward ecological destruction and putting many rare species at even greater risk.
It’s past time that we move away from burning trees for energy, towards genuinely green energy. Handing bill payer money to Drax only serves to benefit its shareholders, it does nothing for the planet, it is only driving the destruction of vital forests, pollution of communities and pumping more carbon into the atmosphere.
