Drax Power Plant Accused of Burning Centuries-Old Trees from Canada's Forests

According to a new report by environmental non-profit Stand.earth, Drax power plant, the UK's single biggest source of carbon emissions, has continued to burn centuries-old trees from some of Canada's oldest forests. The report suggests it is "highly likely" that Drax sourced wood from ecologically valuable forests as recently as this summer, despite growing scrutiny over the company's sustainability claims.

The investigation found that a Drax subsidiary received hundreds of truckloads of whole logs at its biomass pellet sites throughout 2024 and into 2025, which were likely to have included trees that were hundreds of years old. The report claims the company received 90 truckloads of logs sourced from "old-growth forests" in the Skeena region of British Columbia, home to some of Canada's largest undeveloped wilderness areas.

Drax has received billions of pounds in green energy subsidies from the UK government for burning biomass derived largely from wood. However, the company's sustainability claims have been questioned in recent years, with a BBC Panorama documentary in 2022 reporting that Drax had cut down primary forests in Canada to turn into wood pellets.

The latest investigation suggests that Drax was burning "irreplaceable" trees even as its owners lobbied the UK government for additional green energy subsidies, which were granted earlier this week. Drax maintains that it sources wood only from "well‐managed, sustainable forests," but the report's findings contradict these claims.