Today’s International Day of Forests is meant to celebrate the important role forests play for climate regulation, species protection, and the global community. Yet Drax – the world’s second largest wood-based biomass producer – chose this day to publish its annual report highlighting another year of burning wood pellets from logged forests. The company, which calls large areas of North American forests “fiber baskets,” refers to its operations as “sustainable” over 180 times in its report. This is in spite of evidence that producing, exporting, and burning forest pellets in industrial-scale power plants threatens our climate and biodiversity.
The new report shows that last year Drax sourced over 8 million tonnes of wood, burning almost 6 million tonnes of it in its North Yorkshire power station. Drax’s global wood supply came from:
- The United States…