Minister to examine origins of trees burnt for energy
Pledge comes after Telegraph revealed ‘green’ power adds to carbon stores
A MINISTER has promised to look at how trees burnt for energy in the UK are sourced in the wake of a Daily Telegraph investigation.
Lord Goldsmith, minister for the environment, said he planned to “look very closely” at how wood used in industrial biomass burners run by Drax was procured.
In an appearance before MPS on the environment, food and rural affairs committee, he said: “When you’ve got a system as big as Drax then if you get it even slightly wrong in terms of the input that’s going to have big implications.
“I’m not an expert on this, and I probably will never be an expert, but I will be looking in more detail.”
It comes after an investigation linked Drax’s suppliers to logging in some of Europe’s most important forests, including rare habitats which are protected under EU law.
Similar concerns have been raised over the trees used to make pellets in the US and Canada which are then shipped to be burnt in the North Yorkshire power plant.
Drax and its suppliers argue that they abide by the strictest sustainability standards and that all allegations about their supply chains are unfounded.
The energy company receives £2.3million a day in green subsidies from the Government on the basis that the trees are a renewable source because they are replanted.
But the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has admitted that it does not collect information on where the trees are replanted.
Similarly, “confidential” sustainability reports submitted to Ofgem contain no evidence on where the trees were sourced or how many have been replanted, but they do identify a country.
In response to a Freedom of Information request BEIS said it also held “no information” on how much carbon dioxide is sequestered by the saplings.
Scientists have warned it is much less than that stored in logging forests, creating a “carbon debt” that could take decades if not centuries to pay back as the trees grow.
Lord Goldsmith promised to report back to MPS on his findings.
At the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow, the peer led UK Government efforts to remove deforestation from supply chains, including a £500million programme to protect rainforests.
During the event earlier this month, he admitted there were “real problems” with the business model, adding: “I don’t think those problems were properly fully understood when the infrastructure which is now there was first developed.”
A Government spokesman said: “We are totally committed to eliminating our contribution to climate change by 2050, which is why we only support biomass which complies with strict sustainability criteria.
“Our tree planting plans complement our strictly regulated biomass commitments.”
A spokesman for Drax said: “Drax’s world-leading biomass sourcing policy ensures that the biomass we use to generate 12 per cent of Britain’s renewable electricity meets the highest sustainability standards and contributes to healthy, growing forests which support biodiversity and communities.”