Politically both major opposition parties in England are opposed to new coal without carbon capture and storage. Even the government support is looking shaky now that Ed Milliband is responsible for a new combined department of energy and climate change.

In terms of  British charities over 60 groups are officially opposed to new coal and are working together under the Stop Climate Chaos banner. Combined  these groups have a membership of over 4 million UK adults. Of these groups WDM, OXFAM, Christian Aid, Greenpeace, and others all have online petitions and lobbying efforts. Considering that the UK Climate Bill was initiated and pushed through by these groups it’s fair to say they have significant clout.

Apart from the usually lobbying and petition collecting, some of these groups have also taken to direct action. Notably Greenpeace who where recently found not guilty of criminal damage after climbing Kingsnorths chimney stack and paintng a slogon on the side. The defence claimed that they where preventing more damage via climate change than they caused and the jury agreed! This jury had been presented information from expert witnesses including James Hansen (PDF) and the conservative parties environment adviser Zac Goldsmith.

EON have also been targeted quite directly by the Camp for Climate Action which held a weeklong protest camp attended by over 1200 people for a week during August. Attendees of the Camp for Climate Action where given return tickets to Kingsnorth and an email list created. If planning permission gets the go ahead then we are back to full on direct action with a rolling blockade!

However, never the type to be tied down to one tactic the camp has branded this the EON Face Off and called for a coordinated national capaign against UK coal from mining to processing, burning and financing. Recent maneuvers against E.on have included:

• 48 Hrs of action against eon with numerous protest around the country. This was scuppered slightly when one group decided that two days of protest at EON’s HQ in a week wasnt enough and it became 72hrs of action.  I attended this final protest with at least 30 others dressed as Santa and delivering eon its bags of coal for being a naughty company.

• A national campaign of recruitment fair disruption around the UK. In collaboration; rising tide, people and planet and the climate camp protested eons attempts at graduate recruitment at 17 universities in a row before they gave up for the year.

• EON Google bombing.  So far over 30 websites have linked to anti-coal site www.nonewcoal.org.uk via the text EON which has boosted it up to 5th place in the Google search rankings for EON.

All of this is building up to a blockade of construction at Kingsnorth if planning permission is granted. The only question is, will EON pull its brand through this much dirty coal or will it see the bright renewable energy future?

Perhaps from the US it looks like this is the case?  Let’s talk about what is really going on.

Back in the 1990′s we had a glorious female prime minister, she accomplished amazing feats such as devastating miners’ communities, keeping a firm grip of some islands in the South Atlantic and informing members of the public that if they where to be found on public transport after the age of 25 they could safely consider themselves a failure. Well, she also privatised the energy sector. This lead to the ‘dash-to-gas’ and a considerable decarbonisation of the national energy grid as you would expect when moving away from coal.

There hadn’t been a coal plant built for some years and market economics guaranteed this wouldn’t change soon. Now some thirty years after the last coal plant was built we have a hero entering the energy policy stage. This hero is multi-national energy giant E-ON. Facing terrifying odds–a population accustomed to clean air, a political consensus on emissions cuts of 80% by 2050 and an enormous civil society coalition of more than 70 organisations–E-ON is planning a new lease of life for coal. Boldly leading the energy sector back to the stone age, EON are planning to build a 1600MW coal fired power plant at Kingsnorth in Kent.

There are probably now more websites in the UK operated by anti-coal groups than there are people in Kent.  Diversity of function is the best part. There are websites dedicated to E-ON, Kingsnorth in particular, national coal developments, open cast mining, national uk campaigns, lobbying groups, direct action networks and direct action groups.

As the climate bill looks set to enter law any week now we find ourselves working harder than ever to prevent backsliding. We want action now, not in forty years time. And we want action here in the UK, not the buying of carbon credits from eastern Europe!

On October the 13th one group that rapidly developed out of the frenetic uk climate movement decided that it was time to rush parliament and demand no new coal, no aviation expansion, and a climate bill that reflects the latest science. We have no patience for government rhetoric, there is the serious work of decarbonisation to be done. The 13th was chosen as it was 100 years to the day that the Suffragettes stormed parliament to demand universal adult suffrage.

The group that i am most involved with is the Camp for Climate Action, a hugely dynamic and growing movement of people willing to participate in non-violent direct action to stop the root causes of climate change. For the last three years we have created climate protest camps, firstly at the UK’s largest coal fired power plant, then at Heathrow to protest its expansion, and most recently at Kingsnorth where they are planning a new coal plant. Next year there probably wont be a camp everyone is putting their energy into preparing for and sustaining a blockade of Kingsnorth if it gets planning permission in March as expected. We aren’t planning simply to blockade the power plant, we are planning to attack E-ON UK from all angles, highlighting the companies who give them finance, the dubious record of the imported Columbian Coal that is currently being used and organising boycotts of the banks that fund them. We have also started targeting student recruitment fairs. E-ON know that UK students care about climate change, that is why they present themselves as environmentally sound, even going so far as to claim solving climate change is their priority. At campuses around the UK, with E-On branded materials and amazing design work with have set the record straight.

So while groups representing 4 million UK citizens are giving E-ON a clear political message, we are looking to give them practical and financial difficulties.

Our next major project, to take place on Friday 28th and 29th of October, is a national call to action. Supported by Climate Camp, Plane Stupid, Coal Action Network, Campaign against Climate Change and Rising Tide amongst others. We will not allow new coal power to be built in the UK, it is too important to let this go…quite simply the UK has no legitimacy to negotiate an international climate treaty with Asia and the developing world if it is still using the most polluting form of energy known to man.

The exact location of this site was a closely guarded secret until it was taken, so as to avoid police obstruction. Now that the site has been taken everyone has been taken, everyone is invited so if you are in the UK…get down there! (travel guide)  I`ll see you in a couple of days–me and many kilograms of audio visual recording equipment! I`m hoping to record as many of the over 200 workshops (full program) as i possibly can.

The Camp for Climate Action is in its third year in the UK and judging by past years it will be an exciting, educational and above all inspirational event.

Hannah Abbots puts it succinctly:

“We have a future to protect, and today, in setting up the climate camp, we’ve drawn a line in the sand at Kingsnorth. We will not allow companies like E.ON drag us over the edge of climate catastrophe.”

To that I will add only that it is hugely inspirational to see our comrades in the US fighting, and winning battles against coal power all over the country. If the yanks can do it then so can we!  We are nearing a point at which coal power is fully recognised by politicians across the  world as the destructive and archaic power source that it really is.

I`m hoping that we will have Internet access on site as we did last year if so then I will post an update live from the camp, i`m also planning to post video directly from the camp to our new youtube channel.

The Climate Camp is unusually in how it sets out to meet these aims, the idea of consensus decision making is perhaps the most important distinguishing factor. This idea of consensus partly stems from the strongly anti-authoritarian philosophy within the camp, and is with decision making at the appropriate level rather than from the top down. Whole camp issues are gone through in detail by working groups that are open to all comers, these produce proposals for discussion by the whole camp. Decisions effecting smaller groups are dealt with by those smaller groups. Working groups exist for dealing with ongoing whole camp issues and are generally in regular communication,all working groups get together at monthly national gatherings, which take place around the country and minutes to which are made available online. These national gatherings are hosted by regional groups which exist to organise the various neighbourhoods which–along with there own kitchens, toilets, marquees–make up the accommodation areas of the camp. This openness, freedom for local groups and range of working groups make the whole climate camp process both extremely inspirational and empowering as everyone can find a group that is working on an area of personal interest or in need there own skills.

In the first two years this way of functioning has has managed to create a movement with increasing momentum. The first camp, at Drax, the largest coal fired power plant in the UK, attracted some 600 people and led to a great deal of national press coverage as well as evening news items. In terms of radical politics this was effectively a re-launch of a dormant movement; not since the anti-roads protests of the 1990′s has such an influential radical political grouping been active. Bringing together diverse groups working on corporate globalisation, southern rights, trade justice and inequality under the banner of climate change activism has been a significant development—one which has inspired similar actions around the world and that continues to grow.

Above:Last year a group of US activists made a video in solidarity with us. This made us feel that we where part of something global, many more developments in this area are happening this year…to many for this space but to all of you out there working on climate change solidarity and good luck with your future plans!

The numbers at the 2007 Camp for Climate Action, at Heathrow, where roughly double those of the first year. Press coverage was global and the workshops timetable was significantly expanded to provide over 100 workshops on topics ranging from site practicalities to direct action training, climate science, international climate policy, building social movements and a lot else besides.

I think that everyone involved felt that these meetings where a huge success, the actual events however, where never going to achieve our aims on there own. So whilst planning for the largest climate camp ever we are also starting to think about the question is do we even do a camp next year? Is the camp a useful element of a movement or should we place our energies into other things? If the climate camp is only an element of a movement that what is its role and how can it do this better? One answer to this is the energy that certain campaigns have picked up from the camp due to the workshops which are a great opportunity for getting active people interested and engaged with important work. Structuring days along a theme building towards campaign launches and campaign commitments—basically working as an incubator for activism—is one way in which the camp could play a central role. This debate is getting underway early this year, giving lots of time to decide on the best strategy for building the radical climate action movement.

Naturally all of this work, energy and success has aroused a great deal of interest from the police who aren’t too interested in the planet’s safety, and rather more interested in protecting the fossil fuel powered, corporate controlled status quo.

Above:this is rather well illustrated by this video: I arrive at the London meeting expressing my surprise at absence of police officers, then I meet around 8 police officers who proceed to photograph everyone going in or out of the meeting building, then I nearly get arrested for walking in front of a police camera which is aimed at fellow activist and failing to give my name and address, finally after some time I provide my details rather than risk spending 6 hours in a police cell…I came to a meeting after all!

This year the Camp for Climate Action is being launched by a major meeting on aviation expansion, this will be followed by a caravan procession from Heathrow to Kingsnorth power plant in Kent, where the camp will run from the 3rd-11th of August.

1. Late July: Heathrow event and travel to Kingsnorth. Details soon… Sunday August 3th: Camp set up. We’ll all make the camp happen together.
2. Monday August 4th-10th: Workshops, networking and action training.
3. Wednesday August 6th: Day of Action against Agrofuels
4. Saturday August 9th: Day of Mass Action against Kingsnorth coal-fired power station
5. Monday August 11th: Help return the camping field back to nature.