Stop burning trees! Go for nuclear and gas to go green
London, 5 November - Net Zero Watch today is calling on Boris Johnson to stop the obscene burning of millions of trees in British power stations and adopt a gas and nuclear strategy already gaining pace in Europe and other parts of the world.
The burning of trees in British power stations such as Drax, which consumes 7 million tonnes of pellets (25 million trees equivalent) per year has been revealed today as a worse carbon dioxide emitter than the coal which it replaced, as well as costing consumers £800 million a year in subsidy.
A ground-breading investigation by the Daily Telegraph in Latvia, where Drax sources some of its trees, has confirmed what experts have long argued, that the biomass industry’s claims of long-term replanting of trees are extremely doubtful, meaning that the higher-than-coal emissions of biomass are not offset, as well as making a mockery of the Prime Minister’s COP26 flagship promise to tackle global deforestation.
The lesson for the British government is obvious. The biomass charade has to stop. Drax should wind down its tree burning immediately and be permitted to build combined cycle gas turbines and nuclear power on its prime site and using its experienced and highly-skilled workforce.
The European Union’s plan to classify gas and nuclear as genuinely low-emitting forms of energy shows that reality is dawning, and the UK government should now follow this common-sensical approach.
Dr John Constable, Energy Editor for Net Zero Watch said:
There have been 26 COPs since the first in 1995, yet none has had any impact on CO2 emissions. Why? Because no economically realistic or environmentally acceptable path to climate mitigation has ever been offered to the world’s people.
"Failing renewables policies are now the single largest obstacle to a viable low carbon global economy. A gas to nuclear policy is the only way that real and sustainable emissions reductions can be achieved without economic and environmental devastation and public resistance."
Dr Benny Peiser, the Net Zero Watch director, said:
There is no chance for Britain to play a leading role in global climate and energy policy unless the Prime Minister accepts that renewables are a dangerous dead-end."