Plans for two industrial pellet plants would increase carbon emissions and hurt the health of rural communities, campaigners warn.

The firm’s proposal to bury emissions from burning wood under the North Sea is still a pipe dream, says campaigner Almuth Ernsting of Biofuelwatch.

The country’s largest CO2 emitter has ‘crossed a line’ in its local PR efforts, critics say.

Party activists “ashamed” to learn of the contribution from the North Yorkshire biomass company.

Documents show bioenergy giant is “influencing the thinking” of ministers, say campaigners.

Campaigners say the Yorkshire biomass company is "running for cover" after it was hit by a series of scandals.

Graham Stuart MP has championed the UK’s highly polluting wood-pellet burning power station, which is located close to his Yorkshire constituency.

The company is currently seeking an estimated £31.7 billion worth of subsidies from the UK government for a similar project.

Critics say the North Yorkshire power station is likely to continue burning wood pellets for electricity, and that the amounts granted to new projects are too low to result in any significant technological breakthroughs.

The ‘sustainability principles’ outlined in the document could in fact contribute to increased carbon emissions in the atmosphere, a policy analyst has claimed.

Responding to the analysis, Phil MacDonald, chief operating officer of Ember, said this was “exactly the kind of research that the UK government should be doing before it makes a decision on funding BECCS”. 

The Green Party accused Labour of helping the biomass energy producer engage in "green spin of the worst kind".

Geoffrey Supran, a climate researcher at Harvard University, said the UK government had its priorities “completely backwards” if the meetings could be seen as a proxy for where ministers were focusing attention.

Environmentalists raise concern that a senior policy manager for the biomass producer may have had input on UK climate policy.

Critics argued that representatives of Drax, which received £832 million from the government last year, should not have a role advising the government on tackling climate change.

The authors of a report argue that the intensification of Baltic logging is reinforced by biomass demand from foreign bioenergy companies such as Orsted, RWE and Drax.