Drax cuts down environmentally-important forests despite £6bn green energy subsidies from taxpayer
- Media Manager
- Oct 2, 2022
- 2 min read
Proactive
Written By: Jordan Brodie Farooqui
Published: October 3rd, 2022
Panorama took satellite images, traced logging licences and used drone filming to confirm its findings
Drax Group (LSE:DRX), which has received approximately £6bn in green energy subsidies from the UK taxpayer, was found to be cutting down environmentally-important forests in Canada, according to a BBC Panorama investigation.
The company, which operates Britain’s largest power station, burns millions of tonnes of wood pellets – which is classified as renewable energy because new trees are meant to be planted to replace the old ones to recapture the carbon emitted by burning the pellets.
Drax, however, claimed it only used waste wood and sawdust, insisting many of the trees had already died and that logging reduces wildfire risk.
Its own responsible sourcing policy says it “will avoid damage or disturbance” to primary and old-growth forests.
Panorama found that the company bought logging licences to remove two areas of environmentally-friendly forest in British Columbia.
One of the forests is a square mile and has spaces that have previously been labelled rare and old-growth forest.
Panorama took satellite images, traced logging licences and used drone filming to confirm its findings.
Reporter Joe Crowley, meanwhile, followed a truck from a Drax mill to make sure it was picking up whole logs from a precious forest area, Sky News reported.
Ecologist Michelle Connolly insisted the company was destroying forests that took thousands of years to develop.
Connolly commented: "It's really a shame that British taxpayers are funding this destruction with their money.
“Logging natural forests and converting them into pellets to be burned for electricity, that is absolutely insane.”
Drax’s Yorkshire power station, which is a converted coal plant, produces roughly 12% of the UK’s renewable electricity.
Renewable energy from wood pellets has been questioned by many green enthusiasts, with the actual burning of wood thought to produce more greenhouse gases than burning coal, Sky News added.
