A climate camp protest planned for last weekend at the Drax power station in North Yorkshire, England, was called off at the last minute after 27 activists were arrested and equipment including tents, cooking equipment, toilets and wheelchair accessible trucks were confiscated.
sign: Statement of solidarity with RECLAIM THE POWER
Reclaim the Power, which organized the event, has accused police forces of spending millions of public dollars to thwart peaceful camping in the country’s biggest carbon emitter, at a time when they should be focusing their resources on preventing violent fascist attacks.
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A statement from Reclaim the Power, the organisers of the camp, said: “Drax is desperately trying to prevent us from focusing on the fact that the UK’s biggest carbon emitter is receiving £1.7m a day in public subsidies and has just announced it will generate a £300m windfall for shareholders.”
read: Latest DRAX report from Ember.
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“It is completely absurd that multiple police forces have wasted so many resources on this massive operation to disrupt entirely peaceful protests, when they could have been focused on preventing violent fascist attacks happening across the country.
“Police claim they are ‘not against protest, they are against crime’ but their actions show otherwise. In Yorkshire police prioritised locating and arresting people they suspected of organising peaceful protests using tents, toilets and wheelchair vans, rather than locating and arresting people who were actually organising far-right riots using bricks, knives and other weapons.”
Areeba Hamid, joint executive director of Greenpeace UK, said: “These preventive arrests are a worrying legacy of the previous administration’s attempts to restrict peaceful protest – their only crime was organising a peaceful protest camp against the UK’s worst polluters.”
“Protesters did not throw bricks or carry assault weapons. The emotional response to the racist violence of the past few days is a powerful reminder of the important role peaceful protest plays in our society.”
She added: “We must not succumb to political attempts to demonise protesters, refugees or minority groups. We have an opportunity to make a clean break and change course by ensuring this new government rolls back some of the draconian laws and creates space for all voices to be heard without bricks being thrown at them.”
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Reclaim the Power is a UK-based direct action network fighting for environmental, social and economic justice. We aim to build a broad-based movement that works in partnership with frontline communities to effectively challenge environmentally destructive industries and the social and economic forces that drive climate change.
Drax Power Station, near Selby in North Yorkshire, is the world’s largest wood biomass power station and the UK’s largest source of carbon emissions. Drax sources its feedstock from all over the world, primarily the USA, Canada and the Baltic States. Drax wood pellet production facilities are primarily located in Environmental Justice communities and emit significant amounts of pollutants such as PM10, PM2.5 and VOCs that impact respiratory and lung health.
The UK government considers woody biomass to be carbon neutral, even though burning wood can produce more emissions than burning coal, which allows Drax to receive renewable energy grants (CfD and ROC) – Drax has added £7 billion to its energy bills since 2012 to fund biomass generation.
Climate think tank, EmberDrax reportedly emitted 11.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide last year alone, roughly 3% of the country’s total carbon emissions. It emits four times as much greenhouse gas as the country’s only remaining coal-fired power station, Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire.
“Burning wood pellets can be just as bad for the environment as coal,” said Ember analyst Frankie Mayo. “Supporting biomass with subsidies would be a costly mistake.”
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Brendan Montague is Ecologist.
