Carollers, Ents and a coalition of green groups protest subsidies for burning ‘Christmas’ trees

Ghosts of Biomass Past return to haunt DESNZ

Pictures are available here, video of the protest will be available this afternoon.

Monday 2nd December, 2024. London. This morning at 8am, 100 protestors from Axe Drax, Biofuelwatch, Climate Resistance, Fossil Free London, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and other members of the Stop Burning Trees Coalition brought four giant Ents (tree-costumed stilt performers), a Christmas choir and a dazzling array of Christmas jumpers to the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero. They assembled outside to demand an end to the vast subsidies, equivalent to almost £1.5 million a day, given to the Drax biomass power plant. 

As the choir sang in praise of Christmas trees and gave Christmas cards and origami trees to the civil servants entering the building, four giant Ents (the walking tree-like creatures from Lord of the Rings) representing the millions of trees burned by Drax presented the department with a Greenpeace petition calling for an end to the subsidies, signed by over 120,000 people.

Drax burned six million tonnes of wood pellets last year, equivalent to about half a billion Christmas trees. This fuel was originally intended to be sourced from waste wood but Drax is also logging and sourcing from old-growth and primary forests in British Columbia, and biodiversity hotspots in the Southern US. Earlier this year Drax paid £25m to Ofgem for failing to provide adequate data on the type of wood it sources. Drax was responsible for almost 3% of the UK’s carbon emissions last year, more than the next four most polluting power plants in the UK combined.

Despite this appalling environmental record, last year Drax received £539m in subsidies from supposedly ‘green’ levies put on our energy bills.

In January the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero is expected to make a decision on whether to continue to subsidise Drax. 

Joe, a spokesperson for campaign group Axe Drax, said:

“Drax’s track record is one of global forest destruction and pollution. Subsidising Drax actively funds the destruction of vital forests, pollution of marginalised communities, and pushes us closer to climate collapse. 

“Our ever-rising energy bills are being used to fund forest destruction and Drax’s shareholders profits at the same time as pensioners are losing their winter fuel allowances. We need our government to invest in real green energy, warmer homes, genuine green jobs and not Drax’s tree burning scam.” 

Paul Morozzo, a climate campaigner for Greenpeace UK, said:

“Burning trees to stop climate change is just as ridiculous as it sounds, subsidising Drax is a joke that’s bad enough to go in a cracker, and all of the company’s accounting tricks aren’t making it any funnier. If we’re going to hold back the climate disaster that’s starting to have impacts all around the world then the government needs to stop subsidising high-cost, high-carbon energy like Drax, and concentrate on cleaner, cheaper, genuinely renewable sources. And just as importantly, we need governments and companies to stop accepting IOUs in place of real carbon cuts, because the climate crisis is here now.”

Clare Oxborrow, forests campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said:

“It’s a national scandal that Drax, the UK’s biggest carbon emitter, is receiving billions of pounds in taxpayer cash under the guise of producing renewable energy.

“These sham subsidies – which are fuelling climate breakdown, the loss of vital forests and health inequalities – must be scrapped. Instead, the UK government must draw up plans to close Drax’s doors for good and transition workers out of polluting jobs into the sustainable, clean industries of the future.

“Companies like Drax must be held accountable for the damage they inflict globally. That’s why Friends of the Earth is campaigning for a new UK Business, Human Rights and Environment Act, which would give back power to communities seeking justice over corporate harm to their local environment, livelihoods and health.”

As well as being the UK’s biggest source of carbon emissions, Drax is also responsible for toxic air pollution including carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from the production of its fuel in the USA, where they have breached environmental regulations over 11,000 times. The concentration of pellet production near vulnerable communities suffering from the health impacts of poor air quality has caused Drax to be accused of environmental racism.

ENDS

Notes

Pictures are available here, video of the protest will be available this afternoon.

Contact

Press Officer on site – graham.thompson@greenpeace.org or 07801 212 960

Greenpeace UK press office – press.uk@greenpeace.org or 020 7865 8255