Welcome to our first newsletter of 2023 full of updates about campaigns that we – and you – have been supporting, and policy developments.
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- 15 year report
- Reverend Leo Woodberry
- Hope for the future
- Axe Drax fundraiser
- MP alert
- Barclays alert
- Report from California
- Webinars
- Burned screening
1. 15 year report
We are really pleased to share with you our 15 year report, which is a reflection on some of the campaigning in the UK, Europe, USA and beyond that you have supported over the years. Thank you to all our supporters and volunteers who have donated their time, money and energy to help fight for climate justice. We are sure we can lean on your support going forward and continue to campaign for the protection of forests, and the communities and biodiversity that rely on them from the destructive practices of companies, and those in and outside of government that support them.
2. Reverend Leo Woodberry
As part of the Cut Carbon not Forest Coalition we were pleased to host the Reverend Leo Woodberry earlier this month. Reverend Woodberry is an environmental justice leader and brings with him his first-hand account of the harm Drax causes to poor communities in the U.S. Southeast. During his brief visit the reverend visited Drax with our Yorkshire based campaigners. He also led a demonstration outside BEIS, a prayer service at Westminster cathedral, and met with Lord Randall and people of faith in parliament to discuss how the destructive practices of Drax impact his community in the USA.
3. Hope for the future
Are you interested in protecting forests, and learning about how you can raise the subject with your MP effectively? This free relationship-building training from climate communications specialists Hope for the Future, in collaboration with Biofuelwatch, Cut Carbon Not Forests and Stop Burning Trees, will provide you with tools to communicate the urgency of the climate crisis to your local politicians. In these training sessions we’ll guide you through Hope for the Future’s tried and tested approach to having powerful conversations with your MP. You’ll come away with a step-by-step guide to getting real action from your MP.
In particular, we’ll focus on Biofuelwatch UK’s campaign ask, and how to effectively deliver it to MPs. Drax receives over £2 m per day in renewable subsidies from UK energy bills to burn trees. The aim of the campaign is to ask MPs to redirect these subsidies to genuinely renewable wind and solar power. Please click below to find out more and register to take part on the 28th February from 6pm (UK time).
4. Axe Drax fundraiser
Our friends at Axe Drax are still crowdfunding for support towards their legal costs. The Axe Drax team is a group of volunteer activists who want government and corporations to tell the truth about the irreparable damage biomass causes, and remove the billions in subsidies given to Drax and other biomass power stations around the UK. They demand that this money is used instead to fund a just transition including retraining and transferring workers in the biomass industry, funding genuine renewable energy, and developing a plan of de-growth and a move away from the profit motive, which is fuelling the climate crisis, and towards community based solutions. Please donate if you are able to support them financially, and share the crowdfunder with others online.
5. MP alert
We are asking for your support to help us protect forests, wildlife, communities and the climate by calling on your MP to stop existing Renewable Obligation Certificate (ROCs) subsidies for tree burning in UK power stations as quickly as possible; to ensure that all future subsidies go to genuinely low carbon energy sources and climate action; and finally, to stop Drax from getting more subsidies under the guise of carbon capture and storage.
6. Barclays alert
Thank you to everyone who took part in our Valentines Day action against Barclays and its climate destructive investments. Please help us spread the word further by joining us to call on Barclays Bank to stop funding Drax’s planet-wrecking tree burning.
7. Report from California
Our colleague in California, Gary Hughes, has written an article for us on California’s forests being targeted as feedstock for the global wood bioenergy industry, how and civil society has responded with a united force to oppose massive wood pellet export projects.
8. Webinars
In January we were pleased to be joined by colleagues from Corporate Europe Observatory and Centre for International Environmental Law (CIEL) to explore the experiences, vested interests and policies surrounding Carbon Capture and Storage from fossil fuels and bioenergy. If you missed the webinar we have added the link to rewatch it on our youtube channel below.
9. Burned screening
If you, or a group you are part of, are interested in organising a screening of this award-winning documentary please email us at: biofuelwatch@gmail.com. We will try to organise guest speakers from wood pellet-sourcing regions shown in the film.