Drax faces challenge over biomass claims

A complaint against Drax over its claims regarding the carbon emissions and environmental impacts of its biomass generation and supply chain has been found to warrant further consideration by the UK National Contact Point for the OECD.

The challenge was brought by a coalition of environmental groups, which said the company had made a number of misleading or inaccurate statements that breached the intergovernmental organisation’s guidelines for multinational enterprises.

The complainants, which include The Lifescape Project, the Partnership for Policy Integrity, Biofuelwatch and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, are based in the UK, Estonia, Canada and the United States. The last three are all source countries for the biomass pellets burnt at Drax’s power station at Selby in North Yorkshire.

The specific statements being challenged are that: woody biomass generation is already a carbon neutral technology; Drax’s shift from coal to biomass has a resulted in 90% reduction in carbon emissions; by using bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) Drax can become a carbon neutral company by 2030; Drax accounts for all supply chain emissions of its biomass generation; and whole trees are not felled to produce the biomass pellets burnt by Drax and its biomass generation does not damage forests.

The UK National Contact Point (NCP) for the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) received the complaint in October 2021. It has now decided that it merits further examination following an initial assessment, although it dismissed the challenge to Drax’s statement that it can become carbon negative by 2030.

It said the decision does not mean that it considers Drax to have acted inconsistently with the OECD guidelines.

The UK NCP will now offer voluntary mediation to both sets of parties, although if this offer is declined it will then conduct a further examination of the complaint. If Drax is found to have breached the OECD guidelines, the NCP may provide non-binding recommendations to improve the company’s adherence.

Elsie Blackshaw-Crosby, managing lawyer at The Lifescape Project, said: “Drax continues to mislead the public and investors, pocketing billions in publicly funded renewable energy subsidies while claiming to positively impact the environment.

“The UK NCP’s acknowledgement that our claims warrant further investigation is a step in the right direction. We hope that this decision will lead to the withdrawal of misleading statements and a broader awareness amongst policy makers that burning wood, while claiming environmental credit, is simply wrong.”

Mary Booth, director and lead scientist at the Partnership for Policy Integrity, said: “Drax earned £982.5 million in ratepayer-funded renewable energy subsidies in 2021, over £2.68 million every day. It’s good to see that the UK NCP will scrutinise the gap between Drax’s claims about biomass climate benefits and the reality that logging and burning forests increases carbon pollution.”

A spokesperson for Drax said: “The biomass which Drax uses to generate reliable, renewable electricity for millions of UK households and businesses has a positive impact on communities, nature and the climate. The world’s leading climate scientists at the UN’s IPCC say biomass is needed in order to achieve global climate targets.

“The UK National Contact Point’s decision in their initial assessment does not mean that it considers Drax to have acted inconsistently with the OECD Guidelines. We are engaging with the NCP on the next steps in this process.”