Activists held a rally at The University of Sheffield calling on it to end its partnership with energy company Drax – which is accused areas of burning areas of ancient forest.
Members of the People & Planet society and Extinction Rebellion joined forces for a demonstration on Tuesday outside the Students’ Union and delivered a letter to the President and Vice-Chancellor of the university calling on them to end their partnership with the company.
Drax’s Yorkshire plant runs on biomass, using endangered trees imported from North America and the Baltic. The company’s sustainable source of energy has been contested by climate activists and scientists.
Drax has become the latest founder member of the University of Sheffield newly launched Energy Innovation Centre to further research carbon capture. The partnership was announced in February last year.
On its website the university said it would: “See Drax use Sheffield’s world-class research facilities to carry out research and development into next generation carbon capture and utilisation technologies.”
British energy regulator Ofgem said on Wednesday that it had not found evidence of a breach of sustainability obligations by power company Drax, in the watchdog’s review of reports prepared by auditor KPMG.
However, many environmental groups, including Extinction Rebellion, argue that the reports overlook the long-term ecological damage caused by Drax’s operations.
Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, is a hugely controversial practice that many climate scientists see as an unproven solution to the climate crisis.
Graham Wroe, a representative of Extinction Rebellion, said: “The aim is to get the university to stop its partnership with DRAX because DRAX is the biggest tree burner in the world.
“Its green washing, its lying to us, its saying that they can make the process of growing trees green because trees can grow again – but that takes a long time.”
While the partnership promises to advance carbon capture solutions, critics—such as People & Planet—contend that this research might be more harmful than beneficial.
Protesters argue that burning wood pellets contributes to massive environmental harm, including habitat destruction and higher carbon output.
Critics have said DRAX’s use of biomass – wood pellets from trees – has long-term environmental effects. Due to the sourcing of wood, which causes deforestation concerns, and the carbon emissions used in transportation of the wood.
The government last month agreed to extend a scheme for DRAXs Biomass plants, which would provide around 6% of Britain’s electricity, from 2027-2031 but said they should only run when the power is really needed. DRAX did not breach suitability rules.
