Wood burning: it’s time for a rethink
Burning wood has been long touted as a ‘sustainable’ alternative to other methods of producing energy, either for small scale domestic use in the form of wood burning stoves, or on a national industrial scale via huge infrastructure installations like Drax in North Yorkshire.
However, the tides may be starting to turn as more people wise up to the issues with wood burning – for example, Drax has found itself in hot water several times over the last few years for controversies surrounding their supply chains and continued subsidisation by the UK public.
Despite these media splashes, only half of the UK public are aware that wood fuelled power stations exist at all,1 and only half are concerned about the air pollution that comes from domestic burning (wood burning stoves and open fires).2 In order to create a national conversation that will lead to real change, we need to spread awareness of the harms of wood burning – and that starts with a solid evidence base.
Wood to be burned has to come from somewhere, and for industrial burning (i.e. for electricity production) in particular, the vast majority of wood pellets used come from outside the UK, mostly from north America. In addition to the extra emissions from transport, these supply chains are often opaque, and investigations have found that some of the wood burned by Drax in the UK was sourced from ecologically important Canadian forests, raising additional concerns about environmental impact.
Like burning fossil fuels, burning wood also produces pollution. The carbon emissions are significant, with industrial wood burning in the UK estimated to produce 13-16 million tonnes per year, equivalent to the whole of the North East of England.1 Domestic emissions are much harder to pin down due to lack of data and differences in burning habits, but are likely to also be in the millions of tonnes.
As well as CO2, burning wood also produces toxic air pollution, chiefly PM2.5 which has been linked to a multitude of health issues including lung disease, heart disease, cancer, diabetes and dementia.
There are plenty of studies specifically linking PM2.5 from domestic burning to diseases, but there is much less evidence for industrial burning because the pollution tends to travel further and so is harder to study.
However, there is evidence that working in or living near the facilities where the wood is processed to make it ready for industrial burning is linked to increased health issues. In the US, social justice designated communities4 are also 50% more likely to have wood pellet processing facilities sited within them, making this not just a general health issue but a concern for social and environmental justice.
Political interest in wood burning has been growing recently on both sides, as Drax subsidies were renewed in early 2025 and a consultation on domestic burning has been promised in the 10 Year Health Plan.
In order to keep wood burning on the agenda, though, public awareness of the harms needs to increase, so we can all keep policy makers accountable for making sustainable and responsible choices.
To find out more about the harms of domestic and industrial wood burning, Global Action Plan have published a short review of the evidence.
- Clean Air Public Insights Tracker, June 2025
- Clean Air Public Insights Tracker, March 2025
- UK local and regional greenhouse gas emissions statistics, 2005-2023
- Defined as US counties where the poverty level is above state median and at least 25% of the population are non-white.