Thursday 13 April 2017

Simultaneous Drax protests sweep UK

Campaigners have today held three simultaenous protests against the Drax power plant.

The demonstrations in London, Liverpool and York aim to highlight the facility's involvement in fossil fuel generation and deforestation.

Activists disagree with its continued reliance on government subsidies, which they say should instead be used to support energy conservation and environmentally friendly renewable energy.

They claim Drax remains among the UK's largest burners of coal and the world's largest burner of biomass.

Over half of its feedstock is reportedly shipped over from the US, destroying biodiverse forests and habitats in the process.

Campaigners from across the north displayed banners reading "End Coal Now" and "Drax the Destroyer" outside the companies AGM in York.

In London, activists gathered outside Drax's two largest investors, Schroders and Invesco, to hand out leaflets to workers explaining why Drax is fuelling catastrophic climate change and destroying biodiversity.

In Liverpool, protestors unfurled a banner at the entrance to the port, where some of the imported wood pellets burnt at Drax arrive in the UK.

Anne Harris from the Coal Action Network said: "If Drax was serious about decarbonising, it would stop displacing people living near coal mines in Colombia, destroying ecosystems to supply wood and coal and investing in building new gas power stations.

"Biomass, gas and coal all produce Carbon Dioxide, when we need to massively reduce our emissions now."