Carbon emissions at controversial 'green' Drax power station hit record high

Published: 22:36, 8 July 2026 | Updated: 22:41, 8 July 2026 Carbon emissions from the controversial Drax power station hit a record high last year – making it the largest single emitter in the UK for the 11th year running. Despite this, the woodchip-burning company received a record public subsidy of £999 million in 2025, costing households £13 each. A report by energy think-tank Ember revealed the biomass power station in North Yorkshire generated record emissions of 14.1million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) last year. 'Drax's 11th year running as the UK's biggest emitter is coming at a high cost,' Ember analyst Josie Murdoch said.  'Burning biomass for power generation will never stop being bad value for billpayers or our environment and must be phased out entirely.' Drax's emissions from biomass are not counted in official UK emissions statistics because of UN rules.  This makes the company eligible for public subsidies and it has received £8.72billion since 2012. They were paid for through consumer bills, despite claims that it uses wood from virgin forests, which it disputes.  Incredibly, the energy is classed as renewable because the wood pellets it uses are from forests where trees are cut down and new trees planted. The report found that more than 99 per cent of the fuel burned by Drax last year was imported.  It noted that Drax emitted four times as much CO2e as the second-largest emitter, Pembroke gas power station. A Drax spokesman said: 'Ember's analysis once again overlooks globally recognised carbon accounting practices, contradicting what the world's leading climate scientists at the UN's IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] say about sustainable biomass.'