PROTESTERS descended on Westminster today to demand that the government stop using taxpayers’ money to bankroll the destruction of forests.

More than 100 environmental activists from groups including Axe Drax, Fossil Free London and Greenpeace gathered outside the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero, calling for an end to the vast subsidies granted to the Drax biomass power plant.

The North Yorkshire plant is Britain’s largest carbon emitter, yet receives almost £1.5 million a day for burning biomass wood chips, a fuel source that Drax claims is “carbon neutral.”

As part of the action, a choir celebrated Christmas trees in song and handed out origami trees to civil servants entering the building.

Four people dressed as tree-like creatures representing the millions of trees burned by Drax presented the department with a Greenpeace petition, bearing the signatures of over 120,000 people, calling for an end to the subsidies.

The power plant burned six million tonnes of wood pellets last year, equivalent to about half a billion Christmas trees.

In February, a BBC Panorama investigation revealed that Drax had continued to burn wood from rare primary forests in Canada, after the programme first made the discovery two years ago. 

The plant was then forced to pay £25 million to Ofgem for failing to provide adequate data on the type of wood it sources. 

A report by climate think tank Ember found that, in 2023, Drax produced more emissions than four of some of the most polluting power plants in Britain combined. 

Despite this, the company received £539m in government subsidies last year.

Next year, the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero is expected to make a decision on whether the subsidies will continue.

Axe Drax spokesman Joe, who did not give his last name, said: “Subsidising Drax actively funds the destruction of vital forests, pollution of marginalised communities and pushes us closer to climate collapse. 

“Our ever-rising energy bills are being used to fund forest destruction and Drax’s shareholders profits at the same time as pensioners are losing their winter fuel allowances.

“We need our government to invest in real green energy, warmer homes, genuine green jobs and not Drax’s tree-burning scam.” 

Greenpeace UK climate campaigner Paul Morozzo said: “Burning trees to stop climate change is just as ridiculous as it sounds. Subsidising Drax is a joke that’s bad enough to go in a cracker and all of the company’s accounting tricks aren't making it any funnier.

“If we’re going to hold back the climate disaster that’s starting to have impacts all around the world, then the government needs to stop subsidising high-cost, high-carbon energy like Drax and concentrate on cleaner, cheaper, genuinely renewable sources.”