Author: Mary Booth

November 10, 2025

Whitehead CDR Review: Missed Opportunities and Bad Science, But Notably Critical of Drax

The Whitehead report on CDR is bad news for Drax, recommending the UK not import wood pellets for so-called greenhouse gas "removals." But the report gives a bad steer by failing to recognise that burning trees was never going to pull CO2 from the atmosphere in the first place.

September 22, 2025

Calling on all UK financial oversight agencies to scrutinize misleading claims by Drax

In March 2025, we submitted a complaint to the UK's Financial Reporting Council regarding tree-burner Drax's misleading claims, and are making the documents public now.

June 16, 2025

The Subsidies Assessment Unit Should Reject Continued Subsidies to Drax

The subsidies to Drax would violate every principle in the Subsidies Control Act, as well as Treasury guidance. Will the SAU provide true oversight?

May 27, 2025

Drax’s Subsidy Deal: New Assurances, Same Old Need for Scrutiny

Wondering how the UK Government can continue to subsidize Drax? So were we, but even after rounds of letters with the Government's Legal Department, much remains unanswered.

March 31, 2025

A Familiar Performance: The UK’s “Independent” Review of Greenhouse Gas Removals

Surprise! The UK Government has tapped Alan Whitehead, a longtime Drax- and BECCS-booster, to evaluate greenhouse gas removals.

October 18, 2024

Now that the Tories are out of office, they admit the Drax BECCS scheme is a con

Burning trees for energy isn't carbon neutral, and storing tree-CO2 belowground doesn't deliver "negative" emissions.

September 13, 2024

Achieving net zero with biomass from North Korea? The UK’s Biomass Strategy is a house of cards

Claims the UK will import “zero carbon” biomass from all over the planet to power people’s homes are delusional and dishonest

July 9, 2024

FLC’s guidance for implementing the RED’s biomass criteria published

Revision of the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive last year meant the EU’s rules for qualifying biomass got a lot more complicated. The FLC’s guide explains the rules and how advocates can ensure they’re maximally effective.

February 24, 2024

Continuing subsidies for Drax will simply burn money for no gain – FLC’s response to the UK Government consultation

"Transition" subsidies for Drax and other large-scale wood-burning power plants will burn up billions of pounds that should instead be spent on truly low-carbon renewable energy.

February 18, 2024

The UK’s National Audit Office critique of biomass subsidies missed the key point

Logging and burning forests for fuel increases emissions and degrades forest ecosystems. By focusing exclusively on enforcement of the current biomass criteria, the NAO report failed to assess whether the billions in public support for biomass offer value for money.