When E.ON submitted its plans for the UK’s first new coal plant in 30 years, it presumably expected some resistance but did it expect a full blown backlash? In terms of breadth of opposition and diversity of tactics being employed, the fight back has been sizable and is growing.

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.

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?

This weekend saw widespread global action against climate change: in London there was the national climate change march, which was the biggest for some years - activists carried banners and placards saying 'No New Coal', 'No Third Runway', 'Stop Agrofuels' and 'Time for a Green New Deal'.The EON logo also made an appearance, although perhaps not in the way the company who are keen to flaunt their green credentials would have liked - it appeared on the now familiar 'E-ON F-OFF' poster, and on 'EON don't destroy our future' - a reference to the 30,000 climate refugees that would be caused by the construction of a new coal power station at Kingsnorth.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg who has described EON's recent Kingsnorth proposal a "monstrosity" addressed the crowd and called for action against climate change. Caroline Lucas gave a rousing speech on peaceful direct action, and then invited everyone to a dinner party at Heathrow's domestic departures terminal.

See more pictures from the march on Flickr

There were also protests taking part around the world on Saturday - to read more see the Global Campaign Against Climate Change website.

Protests also took place in Poznan at the UN climate change conference - for more info and to read a daily blog from a campaigner there see: http://poznanclimate.blogspot.com

Kirsty Wright from the World Development Movement addresses the march on coal and Kingsnorth:

A new report launched by the World Development Movement today (on the eve of 48 hours of action against EON) has calculated that 10 million people could be forced to leave their homes due to the UK's contribution to climate change, and that 30,000 new climate refugees could be created if EON's Kingsnorth coal power station goes ahead.

If the UK builds new coal power stations we will be heading towards a world where 200 million climate refugees will be created by 2050, and it will be the poorest people in the world who are the most likely to lose their homes.

Although these shocking statistics sound a bit doom and gloom - there is hope. There is still time to prevent this climate disaster from happening, and just last month the UK government signed up to emissions cuts in the climate bill. But in order to acheive these targets EON's plans for a new coal power station at Kingsnorth need to be stopped.

To quote Benedict Southworth from WDM:

"Our hope is that this scenario can still be prevented, but our government must wake up and realise that we can't say we promise to reduce carbon emissions with one hand and give carbon intensive projects like the Kingsnorth coal power station the thumbs up with the other."

Find out more, and download the report with all the facts and figures from WDM's website.

Check out this video from Christian Aid, calling for a stop to new coal at Kingsnorth, (and featuring an amazing Jaffa Cake):

You can read more about Christian Aid's campaign against coal, and take action on their website - and we also have a round up of organisations campaigning against EON's coal plans and a page of all the different actions against coal.