This International Day of Action on Big Biomass, people all over the UK took a stand against the billions in subsidies that the UK Government spends on burning trees for energy.
And you can help us—we need to create as much noise as possible to pressure Boris Johnson’s Government by encouraging people to sign our petition calling for the UK to say NO to burning trees for energy.
Please sign and then amplify our voices by sharing our social media posts on Facebook or Twitter.
On International Day of Action on Big Bad Biomass, citizens around the globe are standing against the dirty biomass industry and its harmful impacts on forests and communities the world over.
This anti-biomass gathering in Estonia on Sunday, September 26, 2021 was held in an area protected under Estonia law—a “woodland key habitat” (WKH)—in Mäksa, Tartu county, South Estonia. The area was home to a spruce forest mixed with deciduous trees and biologically old aspens, as well as protected species like the threatened three-toed woodpecker before it was clear cut in part for biomass and some of it was sold to Graanul Invest, a large pellet producer that supplies Drax.
In Gloster, Mississippi in the Southern United States, community members gathered in September to determine ways to fight back against Drax’s wood pellet production facility in their community, which has brought noise, dust, and air pollutants to their town. In fact, this Drax facility emitted 3x the legal level of pollution for several years, leading to a $2.5 million fine—the largest ever biomass fine in the area.
Like many communities where biomass plants and pellet production mills are located, Gloster is predominantly comprised of people of color and has a high percentage of residents that live below the poverty line.
Concerned community members living on the North Carolina and Virginia coast toured the wetlands in Enviva’s sourcing radius earlier this month to raise awareness of its detrimental impacts. Not only do the mills emit hazardous air pollutants, but Enviva sources wood from bottomland hardwood forests in the area, harming the fragile ecosystem and stripping nearby communities of a critical storm buffer.
All these events—and scores of others like them around the world—show clearly that by relying on and subsidising biomass energy, the UK is harming people, ecosystems, and wildlife around the world.
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]
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