Will Gardiner responds to IPCC report on land use

Drax Group CEO comments on The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Special Report, ‘Climate Change and Land’

Will Gardiner, CEO, Drax Group

“At Drax we always source our biomass from sustainable forests which are growing and helping to improve the world’s carbon stocks. Our approach is aligned with the IPCC’s view about the importance of sourcing biomass sustainably, from well managed forests.

“The IPCC has confirmed that bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is an essential technology in tackling the climate emergency the world is facing.  By scaling up our successful BECCS pilot, Drax could become the world’s first negative emissions power station, producing flexible, renewable power at the same time as reducing the carbon dioxide accumulating in the atmosphere.”

For background:

  • Read more about Drax’s Bioenergy Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) pilot here. Drax is capturing a tonne of carbon dioxide a day from its pilot – once scaled up it would be capturing 40,000 tonnes of carbon a day from its four biomass generating units. That’s at a 90% capture rate.
  • If Drax can scale up its BECCS pilot it could create more opportunities for capturing and storing carbon dioxide from other industrial emitters in the Humber region, unlocking the potential to create a new hydrogen economy, creating jobs and delivering major environmental benefits globally.
  • Our pioneering partnership with Equinor and National Grid Ventures is exploring the potential for the Humber region to  transform itself and become the UK’s first cutting edge, zero carbon industrial cluster, helping to position Great Britain and the Humber region at the heart of the global energy revolution.
  • We also recently announced a new, innovative pilot project with Deep Branch Biotechnology, whose technology has the potential to capture carbon dioxide and use it to make proteins for fish food and other animal feeds. This could help the agricultural sector to become more sustainable by changing the way land is used to produce feeds.
  • Information about the sustainable biomass Drax uses is available on the website.