Last year Ofgem committed to investigating apparent Green-washing Drax:
Here is a little of the detail from the BBC Panorama investigation. Once the program becomes available it will feature on here. Meanwhile global warming continues and so does green-washing.
In response to the latest findings by the BBC, Drax admitted it has taken wood from old-growth forests. But it told Panorama that 77% of the material for its Canadian wood pellets came from sawdust and sawmill residues, with the rest coming from forestry residues and low-grade logs.
A spokesman for the company says that it keeps its sourcing policy and practices under regular review so that they “take account of evolving forest dynamics, legislation, policy, and science”.
Drax says that it decided in October 2023 to stop sourcing wood from old-growth priority deferral areas, and that “work to implement this decision through the supply chain is ongoing”.
The company doesn’t dispute that it is still taking wood from old-growth sites that are not priority deferral areas.
The burning of wood from old-growth forests contradicts the company’s previous claims. In a 2017 report about sustainability, Drax stated it would not take wood from what it called “no-go areas”. It said: “We do not take from protected forests, old growth or primary forest, sites that have been classified as having a high biodiversity value.”
Drax has told BBC Panorama that the 2017 document is “now obsolete” and that its current policy and practices are “more sophisticated”.
This is environmental destruction for profit, not just Green-washing!
Old growth natural forest is being cut down in North America to supply Drax power station. Firstly this simply is very wrong. It is exactly the same as cutting down Amazon Rain-Forest. Secondly the rules that determine what counts as renewable energy are simply nonsense in this case. Wood is not a fossil fuel. But it is fuel that when cut down, transported, processed, transported again and then burned causes global warming. At each stage it is responsible for pumping CO2 into the atmosphere.
Fifty per cent of the stored carbon in a tree is underground. Why is that important? Because it is released into the atmosphere over time when a tree is cut down!
Stop Green-washing at Drax and Join Earth and Leaf
Drax produces about 4% of the UK’s energy. We can shut Drax down by insulating our homes.