Protest in Leeds highlights huge subsidies for wood-burning power station

Sheffield XR members joined climate activists from around the North of England in Leeds to express their anger about continuing subsidy of the Drax power station, which has already received £7bn of public money since 2012 ⁽¹⁾. Accompanied by music and Extinction Rebellion’s ‘Discobedience’ dancers, they shared information with people in busy City Square about the further £1.8bn subsidy between 2027-31, also explaining that burning wood pellets sourced from forests in the US and Canada is not a sustainable way of generating electricity ⁽²⁾. The latest government decision has halved the subsidy for the North Yorkshire power plant from an estimated £2m per day ⁽³⁾. A 100 page ‘Beyond Drax’ report published last year by the Stop Burning Trees Coalition ⁽⁴⁾ points out that this subsidy could instead provide training for between 12,700 and 21,800 16-25-year olds over five years across Yorkshire or fund the 10,000 new bus drivers envisaged across Yorkshire and Humber together with an equal amount to fund investment in bus priority and road safety. The demonstration in Leeds is one of several emergency protests happening around the country, in Nottingham, Tyneside and outside the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero in London.

Speaking for Extinction Rebellion North, Ali Bath says: “Drax is the UK’s single biggest carbon emitter, burning trees to make electricity and claiming that this is green. And it gets billions each year in subsidies and will boast to shareholders at its AGM this spring that it will make £100- 200m a year of top-line operating profits from this latest deal. The government has chosen to listen to lobbyists over science and polluters over the people, we will not stand by whilst they hand our money over to Drax and its shareholders. We are just some of the people who are mobilising for an end to Drax’s dirty tree burning.”

The Valentine’s Day leaflet

Misreporting by Drax

Katy Brown, Bioenergy campaigner with Biofuelwatch says: “This decision flies in the face of Labour’s purported commitments to addressing the climate and nature crises, increasing energy security and delivering value for money. Only last weekend the BBC reported ⁽⁵⁾ that it has discovered a further year of misreporting by Drax of its burning of wood from primary forests that has not been looked at by the regulator. Continuing to rely on imported wood does nothing to improve our energy security and sovereignty, instead pumping increasing amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, contributing to biodiversity loss, and harming the communities living near the pellet mills. Burning wood in power stations is not a sustainable long-term climate or energy solution and will do nothing to help people with their increasingly unaffordable electricity bills. By subsidising biomass burners the government is supporting the destruction of one of our best allies in the climate crisis – trees – and should urgently rethink this decision.”

Sheffield XR member Heather said “Many passers-by declined to engage, but the leaflets were extremely well received by people who did stop. From the discussions I had it was obvious that many were unaware of the issues and were rendered horrified. We hope everyone will write to their MPs using this link. ⁽⁶⁾

Groups taking part

Extinction Rebellion North

Green Party Group (North Yorkshire)

Friends of the Earth

Unison (Trade Union)

Climate Justice Coalition

Women’s Climate Strike

References

(1) https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2025/feb/10/drax-is-the-subsidy-show-that-goes-on-and-on

(2) https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/feb/10/uk-subsidies-for-drax-sustainable-wood-power-plant

(3) https://www.energylivenews.com/2022/03/25/drax-biomass-power-station-received-2m-a-day-in-public-subsidies/

(4) https://stopburningtrees.org/beyond-drax

(5) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdxnpzzjed1o

(6) https://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/2025/contactmp/