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Drax did not report the burning of wooden from major forests in Canada, BBC News discovered
A UK energy station that has obtained billions of kilos in authorities subsidies has failed greater than as soon as to report it burned wooden from major forests, BBC News has discovered.
Drax Power Station, which burns wooden pellets, is required to report the place it sources its wooden and whether or not it’s from pure, beforehand untouched forests.
The firm paid a £25m penalty final yr for misreporting this knowledge following an investigation by the vitality regulator Ofgem and now the BBC has found an extra yr of misreporting that has not been checked out by the regulator.
The firm didn’t deny misreporting its sustainability knowledge however mentioned it’s “focused on implementing the lessons learned”.
The energy station, a transformed coal plant in North Yorkshire, generates roughly 6% of the UK’s electrical energy and has obtained billions of kilos in subsidies from the federal government and bill-payers as a result of wood-burning is classed as a supply of renewable vitality.
BBC Panorama and BBC News has beforehand reported that Drax held logging licences in British Columbia, Canada, and used wooden, together with entire timber, from major and old-growth forests for its pellets.
These are pure forests which have by no means been industrially logged and lock up and retailer important quantities of carbon as properly offering key wildlife habitats.
The firm says it doesn’t personal forests or sawmills, now not bids for logging licences and has stopped sourcing wooden from some websites, the place the British Columbia authorities has requested corporations to pause additional logging.
However, public logging information present Drax nonetheless sources entire timber from major forests which might be felled by different corporations within the province, regardless of stating in its personal sustainability standards that the corporate will “avoid damage or disturbance to high carbon forests” which “can be defined as primary forest”.
Modern industrial logging solely actually started within the inside of British Columbia within the Sixties, which implies the areas which have been logged and replanted in current a long time usually are not but mature sufficient for these plantations to harvested.
Nearly all the commercial logging that takes place within the inside of the province is from “woodland of native species where there is no clearly visible indication of human activities and the ecological processes are not significantly disturbed”, the wording utilized by Ofgem to outline major forests.
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Drax generates roughly 6% of the UK’s electrical energy
Drax was required to report back to Ofgem that it had sourced wooden from these areas however knowledge obtained by the BBC by environmental info requests exhibits the corporate did not declare any wooden from major forests within the sustainability knowledge it submitted to the regulator concerning its Canadian wooden pellets for the yr 2020-21.
That yr Drax burned simply over 1.2 million tonnes of wooden pellets from Canada, with a big proportion coming from major forests within the inside of British Columbia.
The firm didn’t reply to the BBC’s questions on why it had misreported its sustainability knowledge and whether or not it had misled each the federal government and the vitality regulator over its use of wooden from major forests.
Drax seems to have since diminished its reliance on Canadian wooden. The firm mentioned that solely round 2.5% of pellets used at its energy station in 2023 got here from British Columbia, predominantly from public forests which have been designated for harvesting.
The firm mentioned it “recognises the importance of sustainably sourced biomass, and we work to ensure our pellets are legally harvested and meet the strict sustainability requirements of the UK, US, and Canadian governments, as well as those of the EU.”
The UK’s present biomass sustainability standards doesn’t prohibit entire timber from major forests getting used for wooden pellets.
The firm added that the misreporting beforehand recognized by Ofgem was “technical in nature” and “would not have impacted the levels of ROCs [subsidies] earned”.
According to Ofgem, correct sustainability knowledge permits the federal government “to understand and monitor the extent to which both primary forests and sawlogs are used in woody biomass, which has consequences for carbon emissions and biodiversity”.
Following their investigation final yr and Drax’s subsequent £25m penalty for misreporting knowledge, the regulator Ofgem mentioned it “won’t hesitate to act” within the occasion of additional wrong-doing.
However, when approached by the BBC the regulator didn’t decide to any particular motion referring to the additional misreporting uncovered by the BBC.
In a press release an Ofgem spokesperson mentioned: “We thank the BBC for sharing this information which relates to the same issue that was identified in our investigation into Drax.”
They added that Ofgem is making Drax “conduct a full independent, external audit of its global supply chain profiling data to satisfy us appropriate processes and controls are in place for the future” and added: “If any additional evidence comes to light following the audit, we will investigate again.”
Drax’s present renewable subsidies schemes come to an finish in 2027 and the BBC’s discovery of additional misreporting of sustainability knowledge by Drax comes as the federal government is predicted to announce an extension of Drax’s subsidies imminently.
The authorities says it’s fastidiously contemplating amending the present biomass sustainability standards and can problem an replace shortly however didn’t affirm whether or not it would stop wooden from major forests getting used for wooden pellets.
A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero mentioned: “The situation we inherited for large scale biomass generators was unacceptable.
“Ofgem required an extra audit to be undertaken and they’re working carefully with Drax to make sure any misreporting doesn’t occur once more.”
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