UK gambling with climate targets over carbon capture, say campaigners

The IPCC is examing the argument that carbon savings from wood pellets should go to the country where the wood was grown, not where it was burned. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters

The UK government is gambling with its own climate targets on claims that the Drax power plant will create “negative emissions” because new rules could hand the carbon savings to the US, campaigners say.

The owners of the North Yorkshire power plant have promised ministers that a key project to capture the carbon emissions created from burning biomass wood pellets imported from US forests will count as negative emissions in Britain’s carbon accounts.