Yahoo Finance Chris Packham leads protests against Drax over environmental ‘destruction’
Broadcaster Chris Packham joined protesters, including some who had flown in from Mississippi, in demonstrations against power station operator Drax at its London AGM.
Dozens of protesters crowded the entrance to the gathering with banners reading: “Stop burning trees” and “Invest in green energy”, while shouting “Axe Drax. Reparations now”.
Drax runs the UK’s largest power station. The North Yorkshire plant burns wood pellets to generate electricity and has been accused of causing environmental destruction and pollution.
Ahead of the AGM, Mr Packham said: “In a global biodiversity crisis, you cannot justify felling and transporting wood from some of the planet’s most precious natural resources.
“It’s a disgrace that Drax is receiving huge subsidies meant for genuine renewables, it is past time to stop funding Drax’s destruction.”
The company receives money funded by energy bill payers because the electricity produced from burning wood pellets is classified as renewable.
A Drax spokesman said: “Drax is committed to ensuring the biomass we source delivers positive outcomes for the climate, for nature and for the communities in which we operate.”
Also on Thursday, BP was accused of excluding activist investors from its annual shareholders meeting after they attacked the business over a controversial solar farm scheme.
Bluebell Capital executives claimed they were blocked from attending the event in Sunbury-on-Thames after raising difficult questions about a controversial solar farm scheme developed by the oil giant.
The activist fund sent advanced questions for the AGM about planning issues with a proposed 92-hectare solar farm in Co Durham. Planning permission for the solar farm at Burnhope was quashed by a judge in January because it was far bigger than allowed.
Giuseppe Bivona, a partner in Bluebell, said: “It is shameful that BP’s Lightsource joint venture breached the law in an attempt to build a solar plant much larger than what was authorised.
“What’s even more shameful is that BP used a childish excuse to avoid accountability and refused access to the AGM for a dissenting shareholder. All of this confirms that BP is a poorly managed company that does not care for the environment, and even less for its shareholders.”
A spokesman for BP said: “Shareholders not meeting the entry requirements were refused access.”
It came as four campaigners from environmental group Fossil Free London were arrested at BP’s AGM. Protesters were detained after chanting “blood on your hands” and “shut down BP” while raising reddened hands.
Bluebell’s hostility with BP follows a clash between earlier this year when it called on the business to reverse its commitments on cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
It said BP’s past pledges to reduce oil and gas production by 25pc by 2030 compared with 2019 levels meant it was destroying shareholder value.
BP has trailed behind its rivals Shell, TotalEnergies, ExxonMobil and Chevron in terms of total returns to shareholders over the past four years.
A BP spokesman said it had responded to Bluebell’s advance questions, adding: “All shareholders were welcome to attend the AGM but shareholders not meeting the entry requirements were refused access.”
Those attending the AGM included a large contingent of BP pensioners attacking the company for not increasing pensions in line with promises made by past chief executives and surging inflation. They told BP chief executive Murray Auchincloss that pension incomes had fallen 11pc in real terms, to an annual average of just £17,000.
BP last week blocked pension fund trustees’ recommendation of an extra 2pc increase in the pension - on top of the 5pc already approved.
Bill Thompson, a member of the 3000 strong BP Pensioner Group, accused the company of planning to take back the pension fund’s £5bn surplus and declare it as a profit.
Mr Thompson said: “BP is blocking the trustees from using the surplus to maintain pensions in line with the cost of living. And it is now reporting the surplus on its books as a BP asset.”
BP said it had no plans to reclaim the £5bn surplus in the company pension fund.
A spokesman said: “On pensions, these will increase by 5pc this year, which is the maximum level guaranteed under the plan’s rules and higher than both the official rate of UK inflation and the average salary increase seen by BP’s UK employees in 2024.”
