A British energy company has been found taking timber from ecologically important forests and burning the wood in one of the UK’s largest power stations.
Drax, which is seeking to extend the £6 billion of subsidies it has received as a renewable energy generator, used wood from forests it had previously deemed “no-go areas”.
Documents obtained by the BBC show that last year the company took more than 40,000 tonnes of wood from old-growth forests in Canada which are considered home to “unique habitats, structures and ecological functions”.
The revelation comes as a group of 30 MPs urged the energy secretary to withdraw her plans to extend biomass subsidies beyond 2027, when existing incentives expire. Drax and other biomass energy companies would not be viable without the proposed “transitional support mechanism” put forward by Claire Coutinho last month.
Drax’s clearing of old-growth forest in British Columbia is not illegal. However, in a 2017 sustainability report the company vowed not to take timber from no-go areas. It listed those as “protected forests, old growth or primary forest, sites that have been classified as having a high biodiversity value”.
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The company’s link to old-growth forest destruction matters because Drax has said its government support was justified because it sources wood sustainably. In the same 2017 report, Drax said: “Generators should not receive subsidy when the biomass used could cause long-term carbon stock decreases in ecosystems; biodiversity loss; soil erosion; or depletion of water sources.”
Drax has been receiving two sets of government subsidies because the electricity produced by its biomass power station near Selby in North Yorkshire is deemed renewable and carbon neutral, with the carbon from burning wood in theory cancelled out by the carbon absorbed by trees growing.
However, experts argue that the speed at which trees grow means biomass energy is not green and may even be making climate change worse.
In a new letter organised by Sir Peter Bottomley, the longest continuously serving MP in parliament, MPs said they had “serious concerns” about a consultation ending tomorrow which would extend biomass subsidies beyond 2027.
“Continued wood burning biomass harms forests, communities and contributes huge amounts of carbon emissions to the atmosphere,” the group wrote in a letter to Countinho, seen by The Times. The MPs noted that Drax could receive about £2.5 billion a year under the proposed new subsidies, more than double the most it has been awarded in a single year.
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“There has been a remarkable erosion of backbench support for the burning of wood in our power stations as a form of renewable energy,” Bottomley, the Conservative MP for Worthing West, said.
His letter comes as new Savanta polling of 102 MPs found just 5 per cent of them supported more subsidies for burning trees in power stations, when asked what investment measures they supported. By contrast, 55 per cent backed subsidies for offshore wind farms.
The subsidies beyond 2027 are considered essential if Drax is to survive the transition to turning its Selby plant into the world’s first “carbon negative” power station, which the government gave a planning green light for last month. That technology, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCs), would theoretically mean the company is removing carbon from the atmosphere. Such CO₂ removal is considered by scientists to be vital to meet global climate targets.
In a statement on its website, Drax did not deny clearing old-growth forest for its power station. However, the company said its 2017 report was “not a policy and is now obsolete”, having been superseded by a 2019 document.
A Drax spokesperson said: “We are confident our biomass is sustainable and legally harvested and meets the requirements of our 2019 sourcing policy.”
