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Drax’s former top lobbyist has accused it of “misleading the public, government and its regulator” over its sourcing of wood for biomass pellets, in a claim for unfair dismissal filed against the energy company at an employment tribunal
Rowaa Ahmar, former head of public affairs for the FTSE 250 company, said evidence pointed to Drax “being unable to prove that it only sourced sustainable wood for its biomass, and that it was in fact using unsustainable wood”.
She claims she was ultimately let go after raising her concerns via a letter to Will Gardiner, Drax’s chief executive.
She has filed a claim against the company, as well as Gardiner and one other executive, at an employment tribunal for worse treatment at work and unfair dismissal linked to her whistleblowing.
It comes weeks after the UK government said it had agreed to continue subsidising Drax’s flagship biomass-fuelled power plant in Yorkshire after its current subsidy arrangement runs out in 2027.
Drax is defending the case, rejecting her claims. It said Ahmar “lost the trust and confidence of multiple colleagues” within weeks of starting her role and would not have passed her probation had she not raised any concerns.
“The claimant’s disclosures resulted in her being treated more favourably than she otherwise would have done,” it said in its opening submissions to the Central London Employment Tribunal.
Drax is one of the UK’s leading energy companies. Over the past few years, it has converted the Yorkshire power station to run on biomass pellets instead of coal as part of the UK’s push to decarbonise.
Burning biomass emits carbon dioxide, but this is counted as carbon neutral in the UK under international carbon accounting rules. That treatment is controversial, with critics questioning whether trees are regrown fast enough to make up for emissions released at the smokestack.
Drax makes wood pellets for its own stations and also supplies others. It sources wood from forests around the world, including the US and Canada.
In October 2022, BBC Panorama broadcast a documentary claiming Drax had cut down primary forests in Canada to turn into wood pellets and used high-quality wood, raising questions over the company’s claims to produce and use “sustainable” biomass.
Responding to the documentary at the time, Drax said the “programme makers have sought to repeat the inaccurate claims about biomass”, which it argued “have for years been promoted by those who are ill-informed about the science behind sustainable forestry and climate change”.
It added that 80 per cent of the material used to make its pellets in Canada came from sawmill residues while the rest was waste material.
Ahmar, who joined Drax in summer 2022, claimed the programme put a “poorly functioning” corporate affairs division under “enormous strain”. The programme triggered a “level of chaos that I have never seen before”, she added.
In her opening submission to the court, Ahmar continued: “In the weeks after the programme aired, as part of her work, the claimant received information that increasingly demonstrated that the allegations in the Panorama programme were correct and that Drax had been misleading the public, government and its regulator (Ofgem).
“The claimant probed this issue to seek further detail and to confirm or clarify her worries about Drax’s conduct. These efforts confirmed her suspicions.”
She claims that she subsequently wrote to Gardiner, the chief executive, detailing her concerns. This set in motion a “series of actions by Drax that ultimately led to the claimant’s dismissal”, she alleged.
She added that in December 2022 she was briefed on the interim findings of a report by consultancy KPMG. She alleged the report found that Drax had “misreported data to the regulator concerning the sourcing of unsustainable wood and that Drax in fact used unsustainable wood”.
In its response, Drax said an independent investigation led by Edmund Williams KC found that Ahmar had created a “maelstrom of chaos” during her short time in the corporate affairs team and was “unwilling to accept any fault or make reasonable concessions”.
“Had the claimant not made protected disclosures in late 2022, she would have failed her probation (and been dismissed) on account of the breakdown in trust and confidence between her, her team, her line manager, her line managers’ manager and several other employees not connected to her team,” it said.
In August 2024, Drax agreed to pay a penalty of £25mn into a voluntary scheme following an investigation by Ofgem, which found it misreported “profiling” data about its biomass sourcing in the period April 2021 to March 2022, and was unable to back up data with evidence.
However, Ofgem said it did not find any evidence to suggest Drax should not have been eligible for “renewables obligation” subsidies. Under the scheme, at least 70 per cent of the biomass burned has to be sustainable.
The case has been adjourned until March 20.
