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UK Government’s Climate Strategy Faces Scrutiny Over Drax Power Plant

The UK government’s climate ambitions are being called into question as concerns mount over the Drax power plant’s potential to generate “negative emissions.” Environmental advocates argue that new regulatory frameworks could shift the benefits of carbon savings to the United States rather than the UK.

Owners of the North Yorkshire facility have assured government officials that a pivotal initiative aimed at capturing emissions from burning biomass wood pellets—sourced from US forests—will be counted as negative emissions in the UK’s carbon accounting system.

However, a working group from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has commenced discussions to formulate rules for national greenhouse gas reporting, which may apply to “carbon removal” technologies starting no earlier than 2027.

Biofuelwatch, an environmental advocacy organization, has raised alarms that the negative emissions associated with bioenergy combined with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) should be credited to the nation from which the wood is sourced rather than the country where it is combusted for electricity generation.

Almuth Ernsting, co-director of Biofuelwatch, expressed uncertainty about the IPCC’s decisions but emphasized that the UK government should not preemptively assume outcomes. “We cannot second-guess what the IPCC expert group will decide, but neither can the UK government,” she stated.

The UK’s consideration of prolonging a subsidy program that currently provides Drax with around £500 million annually has drawn mixed reactions. This financial support, which could extend beyond its planned end in 2027, has enabled Drax to accrue over £7 billion in subsidies since transitioning from coal to biomass in 2012.

Ernsting cautioned, “It is therefore entirely possible that, if the UK government were to grant billions of pounds in new subsidies to help Drax develop BECCS, this would benefit the greenhouse gas accounts of the USA, Canada, and other countries exporting pellets to Drax – and not the UK.”

Historically, Drax has maintained that its biomass electricity generation is “carbon neutral” because it argues that the emissions released are offset by the carbon absorbed by forests planted in North America. However, the company has recently moved away from this characterization after advice from its independent review panel highlighted potential issues with this assertion. Drax continues to assert that it will achieve carbon negativity once it implements carbon capture technology in the 2030s, touting such a perspective as “widely accepted” within the scientific community, according to company representatives.

This stance is increasingly challenged by emerging research from European scientists who warn of potential “carbon debt.” They fear that the timing gap between emissions from power plants and the ability of new trees to sequester carbon could worsen climate change effects in the short term.

A spokesperson for Drax indicated that they do not anticipate significant alterations to the rules governing BECCS from the IPCC expert group, suggesting that their focus will likely be on emerging carbon capture technologies like direct air capture. However, records from the initial IPCC meeting reveal that discussions included reevaluating carbon accounting methodologies for BECCS technologies.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero stated, “We follow the agreed international approach for estimating and reporting greenhouse gas emissions under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement, and we expect the country that captures CO2 to continue to benefit from negative emissions.” They also confirmed, “The subsidies for large-scale biomass generators will end in 2027 and we are reviewing evidence on potential support beyond this.”

Source
www.theguardian.com