Activists from Extinction Rebellion North and Axe Drax staged a banner-burning action on the day that tree-burning power station Drax announced earnings of over one billion pounds in 2024. The action called for an end to public money to burning trees for electricity.

The action came the day after the Climate Change Committee said large scale biomass must end after 2027 to reach net zero by 2050, and just weeks after the government granted Drax two billion more pounds in bill payer subsidies until 2031.

A spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion said: “Even the government’s own advisors say we need to end burning trees in power stations by 2027. So the fact that the government has committed billions of pounds of public money so Drax can keep doing this until 2031 doesn’t make sense. This decision needs to be urgently revisited.”

Helen Hart from Extinction Rebellion Leeds said: “Burning trees in power stations for six more years is not a climate solution. It’s a climate crime that’s taking a torch to our future. If that wasn’t bad enough, this madness is being underwritten by billions of pounds that is being added to our energy bills, which is ending up in the pockets of mega-rich shareholders when it is badly needed to fix our broken public services.

“Time and again we are seeing this government failing to stand up to powerful interests and do the right thing. That’s why we need a citizens’ assembly that is independent and made up of a cross-section of ordinary people.”

The Labour Party accepted a £12,000 donation from Drax in 2022.

Only 40% of the UK’s Climate Assembly panel of randomly selected, ordinary people supported bioenergy compared to 95% for offshore wind, 81% for solar power and 78% for onshore wind.

Rosie, from Axe Drax said: “It is perverse hypocrisy that the same private company can have billions in subsidies from our bills pledged in the same month they announce over a billion in earnings, all while our genuine public services continue to crumble. We should not be lining the pockets for Drax’s shareholders while seeing cruel cuts to winter fuel payment and disability benefits.”

Drax’s obscene profit announcement also came the day after retired GP Diana Warner was found guilty of obstructing a railway carrying biomass to Drax power station. The judge in the trial had bullied the jury into a guilty verdict by telling them incorrectly that they were not allowed to use their conscience in their deliberations.

Drax Power Station, located near Selby in Yorkshire, is the world’s biggest woody biomass power station and the UK’s single largest carbon emitter. Drax sources woody biomass from around the world, primarily the US, Canada, and the Baltic States. Drax’s wood pellet production sites, predominantly located in environmental justice communities, emit large amounts of pollutants, such as PM10, PM2.5 and VOCs which are linked to respiratory and pulmonary health impacts. Woody biomass is counted as carbon neutral by the UK Government, allowing Drax to receive renewable energy subsidies (CfDs and ROCs).

This action was covered by The Morning Star, The Canary and The York Press.