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Home › Dodgy Deals ›
Dodgy Deal
Drax GroupUnited Kingdom

Company – Active

This profile is actively maintained
Lead organisations:
BankTrack,Biofuelwatch & Environmental Paper Network
Contact:

Karen Vermeer

Last update: 2022-06-28 00:00:00
Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire, England. Photo: David Wright via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Company – Active

This profile is actively maintained
Lead organisations:
BankTrack,Biofuelwatch & Environmental Paper Network
Contact:

Karen Vermeer

Last update: 2022-06-28 00:00:00
Why this profile?

Why this profile?

Biomass is classified, and subsidised, by the UK and other governments as renewable energy, but in reality it harms the climate, biodiversity, forests and communities. Drax is a heavy promoter of wood biomass energy and the false climate solution of Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) worldwide.

About
Take Action!
#AxeDrax: For Forests, Communities and the Climate!
Sectors Biomass Electric Power Generation
Headquarters
Ownership
listed on London Stock Exchange

Drax's largest shareholders are Invesco, Schroders plc, Blackrock and Orbis Holdings Ltd. See the Drax website here.

Subsidiaries
Drax Global – United Kingdom
Drax North America – United States
Opus Energy – United Kingdom
Website http://www.drax.com

Drax is an energy company focused on electricity generation and sales and pellet production and sales. Drax operates the world's largest wood-burning power plant in the UK and is the world's second largest producer of wood pellets, with 13 pellet manufacturing plants located in the Southeastern USA and Canada. The company produces wood pellets for its own use and for customers in Europe and Asia. In 2019, Drax announced that it will use Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) technology to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in an attempt to be carbon negative by 2030. It is extremely unlikely that Drax will be technologically able to fulfill this promise, but there is a risk the group will use it to secure more funds to keep burning biomass beyond 2027, when its current subsidies will run out.

Impacts

Impact on human rights and communities

Environmental injustice: Wood pellet production increases air pollution, wood dust, heavy traffic and noise. Pellet mills and export facilities are often sited in communities of colour and lower income communities - who are often already exposed to other forms of industrial pollution and social exclusion. In February 2021, Drax’s Amite pellet plant in Mississippi was fined a record $2.5 million for having violated the state’s air permit for years - however, this sum is roughly equivalent to the GBP 2 million Drax is receiving every single day in 'renewable energy' subsidies from the UK government. In the Southeastern USA, Drax’s main pellet sourcing region, wood pellet plants are 50% more likely to be located in environmental justice communities (see here and here), i.e. counties where the poverty level is above the state medium, and at least 25% of the population is non-white. 


Impact on climate

Drax power station is the UK’s single biggest emitter of CO2, with around 14 million tonnes of CO2 emitted in 2021, around 13.5 million tonnes of which were from burning wood. Drax claims that carbon emitted from burning wood can be ignored because new trees will eventually absorb the same amount of CO2. This flies in the face of science. In February 2021, 500 scientists wrote to world leaders, warning: “As numerous studies have shown, this burning of wood will increase warming for decades to centuries. That is true even when the wood replaces coal, oil or natural gas.” In the same month, 87 scientists and economists warned the UK government: “Forest bioenergy is adding increasingly large amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and reducing the capacity of forests to absorb atmospheric carbon dioxide, making it more difficult to reach net zero carbon as the stated goal for limiting global temperature. Adding carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology to a bioenergy plant does not resolve this issue.” In October 2021, rating agency S&P removed Drax from its Global Clean Energy Index for failing to comply with their carbon standard.


Impact on nature and environment

Forest destruction: Drax burns the equivalent of 138% of the UK’s total annual wood production. Its main sourcing regions are the Southeastern US, Canada and the Baltic States. Furthermore, since its takeover of Pinnacle Renewable Energy in 2021, Drax has become the world's second biggest producer of wood pellets. Those pellets are burned in Drax's own power station in England as well as being sold to other energy companies in the UK, Netherlands and Japan. All of Drax's existing and planned pellet plants are located in the Southeaster US and Canada. 

In the US, Drax' biggest external wood pellet supplier is also the world's biggest pellet producer - Enviva. Enviva has been heavily criticised for regularly sourcing wood from clearcut coastal hardwood forests in the Southern US. As well as being home to black bears, salamanders and many bird species, these forests offer crucial protection from extreme weather events such as floods and droughts that are becoming increasingly common. While Drax and Enviva claim to use 'waste wood' and 'forest residues' for wood pellets, these terms refer primarily to the economic value of wood, and pelletising of whole trees is standard practice. 

Drax owns five pellet mills in the Southeastern US with two more under development. Wood for those plants is sourced mainly from monoculture pine plantations. Across the region, such plantations have been expanded at the expense of the rich forest ecosystems that are being clearcut. According to a study commissioned by the Southern Environmental Law Center, burning pellets from US pine plantations in the UK will be worse for the climate than the UK’s average electricity for a period of at least 40 years. 

Following its acquisition of Pinnacle Pellets, Drax now owns seven pellet mills in British Columbia and Alberta. Those plants are located next to some of the last stands of primary forests in British Columbia, Canada, home to endangered wildlife like caribou and among the most carbon-rich in the world. Drax admits in its 2021 Annual Report that those plants "operate in regions that include old growth forests" and that it will stop sourcing from such forests only if a provincial government review requires them to do so in future. 

In Estonia and Latvia, logging volumes have been increasing sharply as demand for wood, including for wood pellets for exports, has gone up. Logging is happening even in the few remaining old-growth forests, destroying habitat of rare and endangered species including Capercaillie, Black stork and Hazel grouse. In Estonia, the number of forest birds is declining by 50,000 breeding pairs year on year. In July 2021, a report by the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) commissioned by Greenpeace Netherlands, exposed “logging in high conservation value forest (HCVF) areas, logging in watersheds and logging in peatland forests” in Estonia, all of them associated with Drax’s pellet supplier Graanul Invest.


Impact on pandemics

Wood biomass is associated with high rates of deforestation as well as monocultures of various crops. There is a growing body of evidence that shows the connection between deforestation and an increased risk for disease outbreaks and pandemics. For example, monocultures like eucalyptus plantations reduce biodiversity leaving species like rats and mosquitoes, which are more likely to spread dangerous pathogens, to thrive. This biodiversity decline results in a loss of natural disease regulation and poses a risk for human, animal and environmental health.


Other impacts

Flawed claims around Carbon Capture and Storage: In May 2022, Drax submitted a planning application for installing carbon capture equipment at two of its biomass units. A decision on the application is expected, earliest, at the end of 2022. The National Grid plans to build a carbon dioxide pipeline which would connect Drax power station as well as various fossil fuel sits, and a consortium of oil and gas companies has already got consent to inject CO2 from that pipeline under the North Sea. 

However, there are good reasons to doubt that Drax is capable of capturing large quantities of CO2 from burning biomass: there is no example that demonstrates carbon capture from biomass combustion at scale is possible. It is widely accepted that all new technologies go through several technology readiness levels, yet Drax proposes to skip several of those development stages. So far, Drax has been involved in just two small-scale carbon capture trials. In 2018, Drax partnered with a start-up company called C-Capture to trial capturing one tonne of CO2 a day from biomass burning, financed by millions of pounds in government grants. This project failed, and, in March 2021, Drax described C-Capture’s technology as not proven. In June 2020, Drax announced a new carbon capture partnership with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) whose novel solvent Drax wants to use for capturing CO2 at scale. However, the trial so far has only captured 300kg of CO2 a day and this is not over a continous period. All CO2 that has been captured has subsequently been released into the atmosphere and no actual reuslts from the trial have been published. 

Beyond this very small and unpublished trial, CO2 capture from wood combustion has not been demonstrated anywhere in the world. On a nine-stage technology readiness level ladder, the CCS from wood combustion technology has reached stage 4 or 5. Stages 5-8 are considered essential prior to full commercial application. This makes it all but inconceivable that Drax would be able to operate one, let alone two of their large biomass units with full carbon capture and storage from 2027/28, as they propose. 

Campaigning groups like Biofuelwatch is concerned that the main purpose of Drax's planning application for BECCS could be to convince the UK government to grant them further subsidies once the current ones expire in 2027. 

Financiers

Financial institutions have financed Drax via bond and share issuances as well as through shareholdings. See below for a specified overview of financial institutions involved. 

In its Annual Report (2020), Barclays, Royal Bank of Canada and JPMorgan Chase are mentioned as Drax's banker (Barclays) and brokers.

Institution type
Finance type
Year
Projects
There are no active project profiles for Drax Group now.

Drax Repower project

United Kingdom
Project
On record
Gas Electric Power Generation

Drax Repower project

United Kingdom
News
BankTrack
Partners
Blog
External
Blog
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

On International Forests Day, new briefing paper urges banks and financiers to exclude harmful financing that negatively impacts primary and vulnerable secondary forests

2023-03-21 | Friends of the Earth US
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Drax ‘Lobbying Efforts’ Revealed in Internal Treasury Memos

2023-01-24
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Australia excludes native forest biomass as a renewable energy

Blog by EPN: In a world leading move, Australia has excluded native forest biomass from eligibility as renewable energy source under the national Renewable Energy Target, and electricity it generates cannot be used to create tradeable Large-scale Generation Certificates.
2022-12-21 | Australia | EPN
Blog
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Time for Barclays to move Beyond Burning

How Barclays finances the burning of fossil fuels, biomass and nature
2022-11-14 | Natasha Ion – BankTrack
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

World’s Largest CO2 Removal Deal Ever Depends on Tech That Isn’t Ready Yet

No one to date has demonstrated a commercial-scale biomass power plant that can capture and bury its emissions deep underground.
2022-10-26 | Bloomberg
Blog
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Bank financiers of harmful wood biomass have no policies addressing impacts, shows new study

A briefing from BankTrack details impacts of the wood biomass industry and calls on banks to exclude sector from finance
2022-10-21 | BankTrack
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Drax: UK power station owner cuts down primary forests in Canada

2022-10-03 | BBC Panorama
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

UK accused of funding environmental racism with subsidies to Drax

The power station has paid out millions over alleged overpollution in US south, investigation finds
2022-09-26 | The Guardian
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Drax accused of driving ‘environmental racism’ after further pollution claims against wood pellet mills in US deep south

Company billed as UK’s ‘largest source of renewable energy’ has now been forced to make settlement payments for air pollution claims against three of its US pellet plants - two of them are sited in poor, majority-Black communities
2022-09-26 | Unearthed
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Britain's Drax signs deal to sell 2 million U.S. carbon removal credits

2022-09-21 | Reuters
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Drax/Kwarteng: biomass is a bad solution to renewables challenge

The UK should focus on energy that is unequivocally renewable: wind and solar
2022-08-11 | Financial Times
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Drax expands its operations into Asia

2022-07-14 | Biomass Magazine
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Drax submits plans to build world’s largest CCS project

Renewable energy company Drax has submitted plans to build the world’s largest carbon capture facility at its North Yorkshire power station.
2022-07-13 | Biomass Magazine
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Drax takes action to secure UK power supply this winter

Drax will temporarily extend the life of its coal generation assets in response to increased pressure on European gas markets and associated concerns regarding the electricity supply in the U.K. this winter
2022-07-11 | Biomass Magazine
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Drax Eyeing California as Site of New Biomass Carbon Capture Plant

The company is currently seeking an estimated £31.7 billion worth of subsidies from the UK government for a similar project.
2022-06-28 | DeSmog
Blog
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Barclays is big on beef and burning

At Barclays AGM campaigners will be calling on the bank to stop financing big meat and burning fossil fuels and forests for energy
2022-05-04 | Hannah Greep – BankTrack
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Biomass Industry Pushes Back Against Europe’s Plans To Protect Woodlands

Leaked documents show UK power plant Drax is at the heart of lobbying efforts to dilute EU biodiversity rules that could limit its supply of wood.
2022-04-12 | DeSmog
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

BC’s Chief Forester Jumps to Multinational Wood Pellet Corporation

Diane Nicholls takes a senior role in a controversial industry she helped regulate. And promote.
2022-04-07 | The Tyee
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Burning The Forest For The Trees

The popular method of burning biomass is not as good as it looks—and can produce even more CO2 than burning carbon.
2022-01-12 | The American Conservative
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

A ‘Green’ Energy Project Leaves A Mississippi Town Gasping For Air

European climate subsidies funnel billions to wood-burning power plants that harvest trees from the U.S. South. The industry is taking a toll locally and globally.
2021-12-18 | Huffpost
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

MPs brand burning wood for energy as scandal

A group of 50 MPs has written a letter to the Energy Minister warning about the emissions produced by biomass
2021-12-16 | Energy Live News
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Drax subsidiary to acquire pacific bioenergy pellet contract book

2021-12-14 | Insider Media
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

The UK’s Biomass Subsidies Are Harming Residents in North Carolina Communities Like Mine

Enviva’s wood pellet facility, which feeds the UK’s Drax power station, produces dust and noise pollution that exacerbates existing health inequalities, argues North Carolina activist Belinda Joyner.
2021-12-14 | DeSmog
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Citi downgrades Drax on less attractive risk/reward

2021-12-02 | ShareCast
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Why is BC allowing the logging of primary forest for pellets?

2021-12-02 | Conservation North
private BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Minister vows to look into source of trees burnt for energy in UK

2021-11-27 | The Telegraph
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Protester climbs on top of train to Drax power station

2021-11-13 | BBC News
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

UK’s biggest carbon emitter Drax ‘greenwashing’ wood-fired power at Cop26, campaigners say

2021-11-12 | The Independent
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

The battle over burning: why Drax is being accused of “greenwashing”

The UK power station Drax has been lauded for ditching coal in favour of biomass, but lawyers are questioning its climate and nature protection claims.
2021-10-27 | The New Statesman
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

The UK Must Stop Subsidizing Its #1 Climate Polluter: Drax

2021-10-26 | Sasha Stashwick blog at NRDC.org
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Drax faces complaint about ‘misleading’ biomass emission claims

2021-10-25 | The Financial Times
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Drax dropped from index of green energy firms amid biomass doubts

Doubts over sustainability of company’s wood-burning power plant mount within financial sector
2021-10-19 | The Guardian
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Climate change: Drax's renewable energy plant is UK's biggest CO2 emitter, analysis claims

2021-10-08 | Sky News
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Drax PLC's carbon capture claims not based on any real-world evidence, company reveals to campaigners

2021-06-14 | Biofuelwatch
BankTrack news BankTrack blog Partner news Partner blog

Why British biomass energy is a burning issue for Estonia

2020-12-09 | Engineering & Technology
Resources
Documents
Videos
Links
2022-10-21 00:00:00

Burning forests in the name of clean energy? How banks are failing to exclude the harmful wood biomass industry from finance

BankTrack publication
2022-10-21 00:00:00 | BankTrack
2022-04-01 00:00:00

#AxeDrax for the climate, forests and communities

NGO document
2022-04-01 00:00:00 | Biofuelwatch
2021-11-18 00:00:00

Sustainability policy

Date listed represents date as accessed on website
Bank policy
2021-11-18 00:00:00 | Drax Group
2021-11-18 00:00:00

Responsible sourcing - a policy for biomass from sustainable forests

Date listed represents date as accessed on website
Bank policy
2021-11-18 00:00:00 | Drax Group
2021-11-18 00:00:00

Corporate responsibility statement

Date listed represents date as accessed on website
Bank policy
2021-11-18 00:00:00 | Drax Group
2021-09-30 00:00:00

Carbon reduction plan

Company document
2021-09-30 00:00:00 | Drax Group
2020-05-14 00:00:00

Environment policy

Bank policy
2020-05-14 00:00:00 | Drax Group
2020-12-31 00:00:00

Climate policy

Bank policy
2020-12-31 00:00:00 | Drax Group
2021-05-11 00:00:00

Annual report 2020

Annual report
2021-05-11 00:00:00 | Drax Group
2016-04-30 00:00:00

Last ditch climate option or wishful thinking?

NGO document
2016-04-30 00:00:00 | Biofuelwatch & Heinrich Boll Foundation
2020-01-29 00:00:00

Net Zero and Beyond: What Role for Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage?

Other document
2020-01-29 00:00:00 | Chatham House
2021-02-26 00:00:00

A statement by scientists and economics on BECCS from forest biomass

Other document
2021-02-26 00:00:00 | 87 scientists
2021-05-25 00:00:00

Understanding the cost of the Drax BECCS plant to UK consumers

Other document
2021-05-25 00:00:00 | Ember
2021-10-29 00:00:00

Complaint submitted to the UK UK OECD National Contact Point under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Companies in relation to statements made by Drax Group plc

NGO document
2021-10-29 00:00:00 | Biofuelwatch and others

Our message to world leaders: Cut ties with Drax' "Green Energy Scandal"

2022-11-11 10:53:22

Biofuelwatch #AxeDrax campaign page

Drax' compliance and policies web page

Southeast US wood pellet plants exporting to Europe

Updates

2022

2022-07-27 00:00:00 | OECD watchdog advances greenwashing complaint against biomass giant Drax

A landmark complaint alleging that UK wood-burning electricity generator Drax misleads consumers about its climate impacts will proceed to the next stage of consideration, according to a decision published by the UK's National Contact Point (UK NCP). The complaint alleges that Drax’s claims to generate “carbon neutral” electricity by burning trees and other forest wood violates OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises on Responsible Business Conduct.

2022-06-28 00:00:00 | Drax is lobbying the Californian government to allow it to build the world’s largest bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) plant.

 BECCS is a controversial and unproven technology and the news has been met with criticism from anti-biomass campaigners. Gary Hughes from Biofuelwatch argued that Drax was “riding roughshod” over concerns raised by environmental justice campaigners and said that “Drax is trying to take advantage of the policy landscape to see if the plant comes to fruition. Even though this isn’t a concrete proposal, it could prove a conceptual win for Drax,” he added. “It wants California to promote BECCS – and if it can say the ‘global climate leader’ California is on board, they think others will follow.” Read the full article here.

2022-03-28 00:00:00 | New study confirms harmful impacts of biomass industry

A new study, commissioned by SELC, clearly shows the environmental and climate harms the biomass energy industry inflicts on forests in North Carolina and Virginia. For the study, researchers from Clark University used satellite images to evaluate the amount of forest cover lost near four wood pellet plants owned by Enviva, the largest wood pellet manufacturer in the world and supplier to Drax in the UK. Researchers found that logging in the sourcing areas near the four pellet mills sharply increased after Enviva began operating the plants. In 2019, Forest Service data shows that more than 6.6 million green tons of forest were cut for bioenergy or fuelwood in these areas. That’s the equivalent of 71,000 acres of forests cut, with Enviva being a primary user of this wood. Furthermore, the study showed that from 2016 to 2018, Enviva’s Ahoskie, Northampton, and Southampton pellet mills consumed nearly half of the wood from hardwood forest clearings in the sourcing area. Cutting forests at this scale can degrade water quality for communities downstream and destroy wildlife habitats, further threatening at-risk species. For more information see here.

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