ACT NOW: No more money for burning old growth

Claire Coutinho (UK Energy Secretary)

Our bills are being used to fund destruction of the rarest old growth forest in British Colombia.

Sign this petition to Claire Coutinho, the Secretary of State for "Energy Security and Net Zero", to demand no more of our money goes into burning precious old growth forests.

In a recent investigation it has been shown that Drax, propped up by £2m a day in subsidies, has been burning old growth forest from Canada.

Yet right now Claire Coutinho is deciding to extend subsidies for burning trees at Drax, meaning possible billions more from our bills.

Join us in saying not in our name.

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To: Claire Coutinho (UK Energy Secretary)
From: [Your Name]

We, bill payers of the UK, will not stand by while you inflate our bills to fund the logging and burning of some of the most precious old growth forest in the world.

BBC and Canadian investigations in 2022 exposed Drax for burning old growth. When Drax claimed they were "no go areas", your predecessor took their word and kept backing them. Since then, Drax attempted to obscure its operations, but continued their destruction of old growth in British Columbia.

You have already given Drax over the equivalent of £2 million a day for the last 7 years, and right now have the decision on your desk to grant them more. 

We demand no new subsidies for burning trees in UK power station, no more money from our bills for old growth destruction. Instead, do your job and start the genuine green transition: start the process of furlough and re-training for workers at Drax and put money into green energy, home insulation and the public services your party decimated.

We demand polluters pay for the green transition, with taxes on the rich not forcing the bill on working people. During this crisis of inequality Drax and other energy companies are making record profits, it is time they pay their fair share.