Latest News
The green power firm taking us for fools
UK consumers need energy relief—A loophole lost them millions
UK commitment to bio energy carbon capture is misguided
Mississippi regulator accused of pollution cover-up at Drax wood pellet mill
Drax under fire over US wood pellet plant breaking air pollution rules
Drax-owned wood pellet plant in US broke air pollution rules again
Drax in talks to meet with pollution campaigners concerned about US wood pellet facilities
Power giant Drax told by own advisers to stop calling biomass ‘carbon neutral’
Leaked paper reveals government proposal to relax rules around burning biomass
UK Government faces renewed green biomass furore
Is biomass a friend or foe of the environment?
Burning biomass for electricity is worse than coal
Drax ‘pauses’ £2bn carbon capture investment as it awaits government decision
Drax chief’s pay packet jumped almost 70% to £5.4m in 2022
Brits reject public funding of Drax, as tree-burning firm reveals bumper earnings
Drax: Biomass energy giant which received £6bn from taxpayer reports 84 per cent earnings hike
Drax: Biomass energy giant which gets £6bn from taxpayer reports 84 per cent earnings hike
Controversial UK biomass energy giant sees earnings jump by 84%
Call to cut UK subsidies as Drax power station profits nearly double
Citi downgrades Drax on less attractive risk/reward
Myth-busting Drax’s false claims about biomass
Cross party group of UK parliamentarians call on Prime Minister to end biomass subsidies
UK biomass policy statement hints at shift, but isn’t enough
Drax dropped from S&P index of clean energy firms amid biomass doubts
New petition asks the UK public to say NO to burning trees for energy
Bill McKibben in The New Yorker: To counter climate change, we need to stop burning things
Europe’s green energy is stripping US communities of green forests
National Geographic: Europe burns a controversial ‘renewable’ energy source: trees from the U.S.
NAACP: Resolution in opposition to wood pellets manufacturing and use of wood-bioenergy
NPR: Burning wood pellets isn’t the ‘clean energy’ it claims to be, critics say
Intensive logging impacts in Estonian and Latvian forests
CNN: How marginalized communities in the South are paying the price for ‘green energy’ in Europe
Fact Check: What the government isn’t telling you about biomass subsidies
Sky News: How climate-friendly is biomass?
“Carbon-neutrality is a fairy tale”: How the race for renewables is burning Europe’s forests
New data reveals that the UK is now the top subsidiser of bioenergy in Europe
Press Releases
New report: UK commits to protect forests at COP27, while spending £2 billion a year destroying them
LONDON – 10 November 2022 – Just days after the UK committed to increased forest protections at COP27, a new report reveals that it wasted almost £2 billion on subsidising the logging of forests for bioenergy in 2021.
UK to “burn 15 billion loaves of bread” a year for bioenergy
LONDON – 22 September 2022 – A new report by Cut Carbon Not Forests shows that the UK Government’s plans for Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) — on which it is currently consulting — could undermine the country’s food security.
Report: Bioenergy from Estonia may violate UK’s biomass sustainability laws
LONDON, UK – 4 August 2022 – A new analysis published by Cut Carbon Not Forests exposes how the UK’s demand for wood pellets to generate biomass energy is harming Estonia’s forests and ecosystems, including protected nature reserves. The evidence suggests that wood pellets imported into the UK from Estonia to burn at power plants — primarily Drax — are sourced using such harmful practices that they may violate the UK’s legally binding sustainability criteria for biomass subsidies.
LONDON – 27 April 2021 – A new Censuswide poll finds that Brits overwhelmingly (96%) support the UK Government addressing global biodiversity loss but are concerned that it isn’t “walking the walk” when it comes to its commitments.
LONDON – 28 September 2021 – In September and October 2021, a series of on-the-ground protests and peaceful gatherings will highlight the devastating global impacts of the UK Government’s biomass energy policy on communities, forests, and the climate.
Landmark NRDC report finds that BECCS isn’t carbon negative
LONDON, UK – 10 October 2021 – Today, NRDC is releasing its new investigation into Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS). For the first time ever, this report separates and quantifies all of the carbon emissions throughout the BECCS scenario, including emissions associated with the most common supply chain for UK biomass electricity—wood pellets shipped from the US Southeast.
Environmental coalition calls for UK to terminate subsidies to biomass plant in Teesside
LONDON – 10 December 2021 – On the day that MGT Teesside misses its latest deadline to begin operations, the Cut Carbon Not Forests coalition warns the Low Carbon Contract Company to reject any further deadline extensions for the biomass power plant.
Media Alerts
BBC Panorama investigates the “green energy scandal” at Drax (3 October 2022)
Investigation exposes destruction of US forests to feed UK biomass plants (26 September 2022)
MGT Teesside Biomass power plant – deadline extended to 28 November 2022 (4 February 2022)
The future of BECCS is looking uncertain (7 January 2022)
About Us
Cut Carbon Not Forests is a campaign to remove subsidies from companies that burn trees for electricity, co-ordinated by a coalition of UK and US-based NGOs. Join us in asking the Government to redirect biomass subsidies to real clean and renewable energy.
To contact the CCNF coalition: [email protected]
For media inquiries please contact: [email protected]
