CLIMATE change protesters have interrupted a net zero conference to demand an end to huge government subsidies to Britain’s largest carbon emitter, Drax.

Four climate resistance activists were dragged out by security after challenging energy security and net zero committee chairman Bill Esterson MP at the New Statesman Politics Live conference on Wednesday.

Drax’s owners have been paid more than £7 billion since 2012 in public subsidies after government accepted their claims that their tree-burning power station in North Yorkshire is “carbon neutral” — as the felled trees absorb as much carbon as they release when their wood pellets are burned.