At 9 am today, 4 people were forcibly removed after disrupting the Drax sponsored Argus Biomass Conference. Disrupters, posed as conference attendees, stopped the keynote speech from Drax’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Miguel Veiga-Pestana, challenging him on Drax’s sustainability record and shouting ‘Drax Poisons People’ before being ejected by security.
The action targeted Argus Biomass Conference, which has Drax as the main ‘host’ sponsor and is ‘the largest global gathering of biomass leaders’, boasting attendance of ‘Government and regulators’ [1].
Drax has recently been awarded new subsidies from the UK Government, despite repeated sourcing from old-growth and primary forests [2]. In a recent whistleblower case, it was exposed that Drax spends millions on lobbying companies every year and admitted to a ‘revolving door’ between Drax and Government [3].
In the Southern US, Drax has been repeatedly accused of poisoning low-income, Black and brown communities, receiving multiple multi-million dollar fines for its pellet operations, and violated environmental regulations over 11,000 times [4,5].
Rosie from Axe Drax said:
It is an absolute disgrace that this conference is happening in London, celebrating Drax and the biomass industry’s destruction of forests and deathly pollution of communities. Drax’s profits are built on the poisoning of poor, Black communities and the UK Government is making us all fund it through our energy bills. There is absolutely no future in this disastrous industry.’
Sam Simons from Axe Drax said:
This conference boasts about being the industry’s number one networking event, it’s disgusting. That Drax is giving a keynote speech telling the rest of the industry how they successfully lied to the government to fund their tree-burning scam with billions of pounds of our money is a disgrace. What they should be saying is that Drax pellet plants are poisoning communities whilst destroying vital forests. There is no future for Drax or the tree burning industry.
ENDS
Contact: media@axedrax.uk
Spokespeople available on request.
Photos: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1FR6EO7D6_xadW2xDwVFaBWlOfyrYNtOO?usp=sharing
Axe Drax
Axe Drax is a UK based grassroots network that actively opposes Drax through disruptive direct action. We campaign for an end to Drax’s subsidies, due to the environmental, societal and planetary impacts of burning trees for energy. We are building a broad based network, working in solidarity with frontline communities to effectively confront the environmentally destructive biomass industry and the social and economic forces driving climate change.
Drax
Drax Power Station, located near Selby in Yorkshire, is the world’s biggest woody biomass power plant and the UK’s single largest carbon emitter. Drax sources from around the world, primarily the US, Canada, and the Baltic States. Drax’s wood pellet production sites, predominantly located in environmental justice communities, emit large amounts of pollutants, such as PM10, PM2.5 and VOCs which are linked to respiratory and pulmonary health impacts. Woody biomass is counted as carbon neutral by the UK Government, allowing Drax to receive £7 billion in renewable energy subsidies (CfDs and ROCs).
Website: https://axedrax.uk
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[1] https://www.argusmedia.com/en/events/conferences/biomass-conference