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Drax’s greenwashing and lobbying efforts in the UK

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Summary:

Drax uses advertising, lobbying meetings, donations, educational resources, academic research and sponsorship of events to gain public and political support for its tree burning and to present the company as benevolent and part of the climate solution when its power station is the world’s biggest tree burner and the UK’s single largest carbon emitter. This greenwashing has been a key factor in enabling the company to secure subsidies and other funding and to disguise its harm to forests, wildlife, communities and the climate. Note that the list of activities below is unlikely to be complete.

Lobbying

Advertising campaigns to promote Drax’s carbon capture project

Up until early 2025, Drax invested in advertising its proposed BECCS (bioenergy with carbon capture and storage) project. It then refocussed its efforts once the government announced four years of further subsidies (albeit for only half the biomass capacity subsidised so far) on grounds of energy security and not BECCS.

  • In 2022, Drax launched a ‘Back BECCS’ advertising campaign with ‘customer relationship management’ agency, Flourish World and consultancy agency 5654 to persuade members of the public and politicians to support the company’s unproven bioenergy with carbon capture and storage project.
  • The campaign involved targeting over 2.5m people with online and billboard advertising in Humberside and London, including a two-week takeover of advertising space at Westminster tube, a station regularly used by MPs and parliamentary staff.
  • The advertising campaign also involved setting up ‘Friends of Drax’ who produced a sign-on letter to the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero calling on them to fund Drax’s BECCS project and claiming that this funding for Drax would have benefits for ‘our children, the UK and the whole world.’

Community Outreach

  • Drax has sought to gain social acceptance through sponsorship of community events such as York Pride and through the Drax Foundation which offers donations from £500 to £10,000 for grassroots groups to:‘support STEM education and skills, enhance green spaces and improve communities local to its operations.’ Following a campaign, York Pride subsequently refrained from taking further sponsorship from Drax.
  • Drax claims to be ‘committed to being a good neighbour in the communities’ where it operates and to have donated over £40,000 to organisations in the UK, USA & Canada in the first half of 2025, including £1,000 for the Goole Youth Action group to visit the Drax-owned Skylark nature reserve in Yorkshire.

Media advertising

  • Drax has paid for several advertorials in the Yorkshire Post, including one in June 2024 describing the power station as ‘‘a paragon of sustainable energy’ to mark its 50th anniversary and a July 2024 ad feature claiming that the power station was a ‘green energy pin-up’ and ‘cooler than Taylor Swift’.
  • In December 2024, Drax paid for another advertorial in the Yorkshire Post to promote a ‘50 years at Drax’ film, describing itself as ‘renewable energy leader Drax’ and highlighting that the film was in partnership with the Yorkshire Post. The newspaper also promoted a 12 page anniversary supplement with features including ‘the towers of power that inspire true love’.

Influencing education

  • Drax has produced a range of educational materials for secondary school students, including Key Stages 3 and 4 resources on ‘biomass pellets’ and ‘negative emission ambitions’ as well as a Drax 50 – poster competition in 2024 aimed at primary and secondary school pupils with prizes of Amazon gift vouchers, lego models of Drax & grants of up £2,000 towards STEM resources for local schools.
  • Drax claims to have helped 148 schools to reduce their energy bills and carbon emissions through its funding of energy education charity, Energy Sparks, while its ‘Project Sprint’ programme with Selby College offers 14-19 year olds virtual work experience as engineers for Drax’s unproven carbon capture and storage proposal.
  • Drax also produces educational resources for university students, including the Springpod virtual work experience course to introduce over 400,000 students across the UK to ‘early careers at Drax and the important role the company plays in the UK’s journey to net-zero.’

Influencing academia

The University of York announced in June 2025 that it is partnering with Drax and North Yorkshire Combined Authority in a bid to secure government funding for Drax to use its tree burning to power an AI data centre as part of an AI Growth Zone bid to the government.