Drax still burning 250-year-old trees sourced from forests in Canada, experts say

"Drax power plant has continued to burn 250-year-old trees sourced from some of Canada's oldest forests despite growing scrutiny of its sustainability claims, forestry experts say. A new report suggests it is highly likely that Britain's biggest power plant sourced some wood from ecologically valuable forests as recently as this summer. Drax, Britain's single biggest source of carbon emissions, has received billions of pounds in subsidies from burning biomass derived largely from wood."

"The company has claimed that it sources wood only from wellmanaged, sustainable forests to manufacture the pellets that are shipped from its sites in Canada and the US to be burned at its UK power plant. But these claims have been questioned by Britain's energy regulator and the Financial Conduct Authority after a BBC Panorama documentary in 2022 reported that Drax had cut down primary forests in Canada to turn into wood pellets."

Stand.earth, a Canadian environmental non-profit, found that Drax continued to receive whole logs from British Columbia that included trees around 250 years old, with shipments recorded throughout 2024 and into 2025. Satellite monitoring and British Columbia government data indicated that some logs likely came from ecologically valuable, old-growth forests. Drax's North Yorkshire plant, Britain’s largest single carbon emitter, burns biomass pellets made mostly from wood and has received billions of pounds in subsidies, including over £2 million per day. Drax asserts pellets come from well-managed, sustainable forests, but regulators challenged those claims after prior reporting of primary forest harvesting.

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