In Stopping Canadian Wood Pellet Imports, Drax Appears to Admit Unsustainable Practices

NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL • March 16, 2026

Drax’s United Kingdom power station, the world’s largest wood burner (and the U.K.’s number one polluter), will no longer source any wood from Canada. The announcement comes after years of sustained pressure from decision-makers, NGOs, journalists, and others over Drax’s logging practices in Canada. But this isn’t a get-out-of-jail-free card for Drax. Far from it. The wood that the company imports and burns from other countries—mainly the United States—is just as problematic. Drax must concede that if burning wood from Canada isn’t an option, then the case for burning wood from anywhere else doesn’t stack up either.