Drax

Drax claimed record £999m in subsidies for burning trees in 2025, thinktank says

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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/apr/16/drax-renewable-energy-subsidies-wood-pellets

The Drax power station in North Yorkshire burns biomass wood pellets and generated about 4.5% of Great Britain’s electricity last year. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Company has received about £8.7bn in renewable energy subsidies since 2012, despite claims wood pellets are not sourced sustainably

The owner of the Drax power plant in North Yorkshire received record subsidies of almost £1bn for burning trees to generate electricity in 2025, a climate thinktank has calculated.

The company was paid £999m last year for generating about 4.5% of Great Britain’s electricity from its biomass plant, costing each household £13 a year, according to analysts at Ember.

The power plant was able to claim £2.7m a day from energy bills in part by increasing its power generation by about 2% from the year before – but mostly due to the rising payouts from a legacy renewables support scheme.

Drax has claimed a total of about £8.7bn in renewable energy subsidies since 2012, despite persistent claims from campaigners and scientists that the wood pellets burned at its power plant are not sourced sustainably and may be increasing carbon emissions.

The allegations have raised concerns in Westminster over the company’s claims that the millions of tonnes of wood pellets produced by its Canadian subsidiary use only low-value waste wood from sustainably managed forests.

The Guardian revealed last November that forestry experts believed the company was burning 250-year-old trees sourced from some of Canada’s oldest forests as recently as last summer, despite growing scrutiny of its sustainability claims.

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Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/apr/16/drax-renewable-energy-subsidies-wood-pellets

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Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.
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Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.

Continue ReadingDrax claimed record £999m in subsidies for burning trees in 2025, thinktank says

MPs in call to halt Drax’s £2m-a-day subsidy over sustainability doubts

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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/feb/19/calls-to-halt-drax-subsidy-sustainability-doubts-wood-pellets

Drax’s subsidy is contingent on generating electricity from biomass pellets from waste or low-value wood from sustainable forests. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Exclusive: Cross-party group ‘deeply concerned’ power plant may have misled ministers and regulators over source of wood pellets

Ed Miliband is under pressure from MPs to suspend subsidies worth £2m a day paid to the owner of the Drax power plant in North Yorkshire after court documents cast doubt on the company’s sustainability claims.

A cross-party group of 14 MPs and peers have called on the energy minister to halt the subsidies for Britain’s biggest power plant while the financial watchdog investigates the company’s claims about how it sources the millions of tonnes of wood pellets burned to generate electricity.

In a letter, seen by the Guardian, the politicians said they were “deeply concerned” that Drax may have been given “substantial billpayer subsidy” while the company “may have knowingly and consistently concealed information” about the green credentials of its wood sources.

The FTSE 250 owner of the Drax power plant gets about £2m a day in renewable energy subsidies, paid by consumers, on the condition it generates electricity from biomass pellets made from waste or low-value wood from sustainable forests.

Drax, Britain’s single biggest source of carbon emissions, imports millions of tonnes of wood pellets from across the Atlantic every year and is projected to receive £11bn in subsidies by the end of 2027.

The letter was sent to Miliband after “explosive” employment tribunal documents revealed that senior executives at Drax had privately raised concerns about the accuracy of its public sustainability claims, after allegations that it was burning wood from some of Canada’s most environmentally important woodlands.

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Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/feb/19/calls-to-halt-drax-subsidy-sustainability-doubts-wood-pellets

Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Continue ReadingMPs in call to halt Drax’s £2m-a-day subsidy over sustainability doubts

UK using more wood to make electricity than ever, Drax figures show

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https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/dec/03/uk-using-more-wood-to-make-electricity-than-ever-drax-figures-show

Biomass provided almost a fifth of the UK’s electricity for the first time during one morning in September when renewable energy resources were particularly low. Photograph: Lee Smith/Reuters

Giant biomass plant reveals burning of wood pellets made 9% of UK’s electricity in July, its largest ever monthly share

Britain’s reliance on burning wood to generate electricity has reached record highs, even as the government moves to curb the controversial use of biomass power.

The latest figures supplied by the owner of the huge Drax biomass plant in North Yorkshire have revealed that power generated from burning biomass wood pellets provided 9% of the UK’s electricity in July, its largest ever monthly share.

Weeks later, biomass provided almost a fifth (17%) of the UK’s electricity for the first time during one morning in September when renewable energy resources were particularly low.

Britain’s record reliance on biomass generation has reached new heights as the government set out its plans to dramatically reduce the controversial energy source under a new subsidy agreement with the FTSE 250 owner of the Drax power plant.

Under the deal, Drax will continue to earn more than £1m a day from energy bills in exchange for burning wood pellets at its power plant. However, it will only be supported to run just over a quarter of the time, down sharply from almost two-thirds of the time currently.

When the deal was agreed in February, the energy minister, Michael Shanks, said the company’s subsidies had been cut because it “simply did not deliver a good enough deal for billpayers and enabled Drax to make unacceptably large profits”.

Drax has also faced a backlash from green groups amid criticism of the company’s claims that it sources wood only from “well‐managed, sustainable forests” to manufacture the pellets burned at its power plant.

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Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/dec/03/uk-using-more-wood-to-make-electricity-than-ever-drax-figures-show

Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Continue ReadingUK using more wood to make electricity than ever, Drax figures show

David Lammy Shouldn’t Have Given a Spin Doctor for Planetary Death a Plum Foreign Office Job

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https://novaramedia.com/2025/07/16/david-lammy-shouldnt-have-given-a-spin-doctor-for-planetary-death-a-plum-foreign-office-job

Karen Blackett. Photo: Gov.uk

Even if she did give him £5,000.

Last year, when UN Secretary General António Guterres said PR firms were “acting as enablers to planetary destruction” by working for fossil fuel clients, he didn’t name WPP specifically. But they were the main company he was talking about. The advertising behemoth has more clients in the oil industry than any rival.

Guterres, being a diplomat, uses mild language. In my opinion, WPP is the world’s leading spin doctor for planetary death.

And so I was surprised when I checked in on who David Lammy had appointed to the Foreign Office supervisory board, to see WPP’s recent UK President Karen Blackett is now one of the four non-executive directors – as I revealed last week over on Democracy for Sale.

The supervisory board provides “strategic direction,” and “oversight” for the department. Adverts for the roles say they are “significant contributors to both the operational and strategic leadership of the department. Their primary objective is to bring independent advice, support and challenge… helping to shape the department’s work.”

In February, lawyers for campaign group Badvertising and others submitted a complaint about WPP to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, arguing it was breaching its international guidelines on corporate responsibility. Its work for a number of fossil fuel and pollution intensive corporations, the lawyers said, “directly increases demand for carbon intensive products and undermines global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions”.

Why is that an organisation whose recently departed UK boss you’d want overseeing British foreign policy? Blackett spent 29 years working for WPP – three decades as a spin doctor at an advertising behemoth which represents some of the most destructive corporations on the planet. How can her advice possibly be independent? How can the perspectives and viewpoints of clients not have imprinted on her?

As the Badvertising website says, “for every rights-abusing, climate-wrecking corporation, there’s an advertising agency working hard to clean up their public image. And no one does this better than the world’s biggest ad firm, WPP”.

Last month, climate activists occupied WPP’s London headquarters, demanding it cut ties with clients including Shell, BP, Total, ExxonMobil, Drax and Saudi Aramco.

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Article continues: https://novaramedia.com/2025/07/16/david-lammy-shouldnt-have-given-a-spin-doctor-for-planetary-death-a-plum-foreign-office-job

UK Labour Party Shadow Foreign Secretary repeatedly heckled at a speech to the Fabian Society over his and the Labour Party's support for and complicity in Israel's genocide of Gaza.
UK Labour Party Shadow Foreign Secretary repeatedly heckled at a speech to the Fabian Society over his and the Labour Party’s support for and complicity in Israel’s genocide of Gaza.
Greenpeace activists display a billboard during a protest outside Shell headquarters on July 27, 2023 in London.
Greenpeace activists display a billboard during a protest outside Shell headquarters on July 27, 2023 in London. (Photo: Handout/Chris J. Ratcliffe for Greenpeace via Getty Images)
Experienced climbers scale a rock face near the historic Dumbarton castle in Glasgow, releasing a banner that reads “Climate on a Cliff Edge.” One activist, dressed as a globe, symbolically looms near the edge, while another plays the bagpipes on the shores below. | Photo courtesy of Extinction Rebellion and Mark Richards
Experienced climbers scale a rock face near the historic Dumbarton castle in Glasgow, releasing a banner that reads “Climate on a Cliff Edge.” One activist, dressed as a globe, symbolically looms near the edge, while another plays the bagpipes on the shores below. | Photo courtesy of Extinction Rebellion and Mark Richards
Continue ReadingDavid Lammy Shouldn’t Have Given a Spin Doctor for Planetary Death a Plum Foreign Office Job

Campaigners slam government legislation backing Drax subsidies

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/campaigners-slam-government-legislation-backing-drax-subsidies

 Wind turbines at Loftsome Bridge, East Yorkshire, with Drax Power station in the distance

CLIMATE campaigners have condemned Labour MPs for backing legislation that extends massive subsidies to biomass giant Drax, despite the company’s high carbon emissions and forest destruction.

The law, passed in a committee vote on Monday night, allows indefinite subsidies for wood-burning power stations, undoing stricter 2019 emissions standards that would have disqualified Drax.

In 2024, Drax burned 7.3 million tonnes of wood — much from the total felling of forests in North America and Europe — and received £869m in public subsidies while making nearly £1.1bn in profit.

Of the 15 MPs present at the vote, all 11 Labour members backed the measure, while three Tories and one Lib Dem opposed it.

Campaigners accused the government of greenwashing and prioritising polluters over real climate solutions.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/campaigners-slam-government-legislation-backing-drax-subsidies

Protest placard reads Greenwash detected
Protest placard reads Greenwash detected
Continue ReadingCampaigners slam government legislation backing Drax subsidies