Photo by Axe Drax Biofuelwatch, The Axe Drax Group and The Stop Burning Trees Coalition Press Release Climate justice campaigners denounce Drax-sponsored events at Labour Party Conference 27th September 2022 - Climate justice campaigners and Labour Party members...
wood pellets
Open Letter to Governor Cooper: Stop the expansion of the wood pellet industry
Biofuelwatch and 71 other environmental and climate justice organisations based in the UK have written an open letter to Governor Cooper to ask him to stop the expansion of the wood pellet industry in North Carolina. Enviva is applying to expand production at...
Open Letter to Dutch House of Representatives
Joint open letter by 31 organisations from the Netherlands and five countries exporting wood pellets burned in Dutch power plants Click here to download the letter with references and list of signatories Klik hier voor de Nederlandse versie van de brief. Open Letter...
Blackrock: Investing in biomass energy harms forests, climate and communities
New Biofuelwatch briefing about BlackRock's harmful investments in energy from forest and tree plantation wood, coinciding with BlackRock's 2022 AGM. Highlighting their investments in Drax, Graanul Invest's new owners Apollo Global Management, Albioma S.A. and their...
Environmental and climate justice campaigner hold Day of Action urging Vattenfall to move Beyond Burning
Street protests in Germany, Netherlands and UK accompanied by international social media action, denouncing Vattenfall’s investments in wood bioenergy as well as continued fossil fuel burning 27th April 2022 - Today, ahead of tomorrow’s Vattenfall AGM, banner protests...
Dutch government rules out new subsidies for burning wood for energy
Good news from the Netherlands, where campaign groups have been working hard to stop the burning of wood, much of it imported, in heat and power stations. In February 2021, the Dutch Parliament adopted a temporary stop to rule out new subsidies for biomass heat...
Open Letter to Vattenfall urging them to stop burning carbon including wood
Letter to Ms Anna Borg, Vattenfall CEO, CC to Mr Martijn Hagens (CEO Vattenfall Netherlands), Mr Alexander Van Ofwegen (Director of Heat Vattenfall Netherlands), Ms Tanja Wielgoss (Chairwoman of the Board Vattenfall Wärme Berlin AG), Mr Karl-Petter Thorwaldsson,...
BECCS Factsheet April 2023
Download our BECCS factsheet with a focus on Drax's proposal to capture CO2 from two of its large biomass units in Yorkshire.
New Report: Biomass Burning Less Important to UK’s Coal Phaseout than Wind and Solar
A new report published today by Biofuelwatch has revealed that bioenergy has played a smaller role in the UK’s coal phase out than solar and wind energy, or reductions in electricity demand. In the ten years between 2011 and 2020 the UK almost entirely phased out the...
Campaigners: Drax must cease buying Belarussian wood pellets today and stop their help in funding the war against Ukraine
London, 4th March – While the CEO of Drax says “our thoughts are with the Ukrainian people” [1], his company’s announcement to stop pellet imports from Russia but not from Belarus [2] means that they’re continuing to trade with one of the two countries...
French company’s greenwashing unveiled: converted energy plants depend on imported forest wood, not sugarcane
A joint article by Environmental Paper Network, Biofuelwatch and Dogwood Alliance exposes Albioma's greenwashing of their coal-to-biomass conversions in the French Overseas Territories Martinique, Gudeloupe and Réunion The French energy company Albioma is in the...
Biofuelwatch briefing about Albioma’s conversion of coal power plants to biomass (Reunion)
This briefing looks at Albioma's conversion of coal power plants in French Overseas Territories to burning wood pellets, with a special focus on Albioma's two coal power stations on Réunion, December 2021 English version French version
SABIC’s plans to burn wood pellets in Bergen op Zoom
Impacts on climate, forests and public health UPDATE: On 15th February 2023, a court ruling was issued prohibiting the installation of wood pellet boilers at the SABIC plant. This means that the development will not go ahead. Click here to download the briefing in...
Big Biomass in Portugal
Report by ZERO - Associação Sistema Terrestre Sustentável and Biofuelwatch Click here to download. Conclusion: Although in theory Portugal’s biomass power and pellet sectors only use residues and industrial waste, in reality what we are seeing is the unsustainable...
Open Letter: STOP the Pego power station coal-to-biomass conversion!
TrustEnergy, the main shareholder of Pego power station in Portugal and a joint venture between ENGIE and Marubeni, has announced its intention to convert the power station’s coal burning unit (due to close in November 2021) to burning wood pellets. Burning such...
Drax Plc’s carbon capture claims not based on any real-world evidence, company reveals to campaigners
Drax’s carbon capture announcements claims appear motivated by quest for new multi-billion pound subsidies, environmental campaigners warn For immediate release London, 14th June 2021 - The environmental campaign group Biofuelwatch is today publishing...
Open letter to BEIS by groups in pellet supplying countries
Conservation and environmental justice organisations in the USA, Estonia, Canada and Portugal have written an open letter to Mr Kwarteng, Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth and Ms. Trevelyan, Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean...
Drax’s Portuguese pellets: What wood is really being used?
In 2020, Drax burned almost 150,000 tonnes of pellets produced in Portugal, making Portugal it’s fourth largest supplier. According to its annual report, 88% of the wood used consisted of “low-grade roundwood” and “thinnings”. The Pinewells pellet mill in Central...