Climate change activists are to target the site of the proposed new coal-fired power station with a week-long camp in Kent this summer, organisers announced today.
The Camp for Climate Action will be held from August 4-11 at the site of Kingsnorth in Kent, where German energy company E.On is proposing to build the country's first new coal-fired power station in 30 years.
The protest will begin with a one-day event at Heathrow airport, the site of last year's camp, followed by a march across London to the site of the planned £1bn power station and a day of direct action at Kingsnorth on August 9.
The group said the camp will bring together thousands of activists for several days of workshops and direct action on climate change.
The group said it would highlight "government and corporate collusion to expand the fossil fuel economy when the scientific consensus demands the opposite".
Natasha Edleman, a spokeswoman for the camp said: "Building a new coal-fired power station in the middle of a climate crisis is madness.
"The science shows that we only have a few years left to avert catastrophic climate change," she added. "That is why this year's camp will be at Kingsnorth. If this gets built there are seven more power stations coming. This must be stopped."
The government is currently considering whether to approve Kingsnorth after Medway council in Kent gave the green light to the plans in January. If approved, the plant is expected to generate enough energy to supply about 1.5m homes, and would be up and running by 2012.
A decision is expected to be reached by the business secretary, John Hutton, in the next six weeks.
E.On UK has previously said the £1bn investment to build two new cleaner coal units would produce power from coal more efficiently and cleanly than ever before in the UK, leading to a cut in carbon emissions of almost 2m tonnes a year.
The company has also claimed that the new plant could also help Britain develop carbon-capture and storage (CCS) technology, which it says could be exported to help reduce global emissions.
But green groups say the plans are at odds with the government's targets to reduce emissions by 60% by 2050, and will undermine investment in renewable energy.
Greenpeace, whose activists last year staged a protest at the existing plant by climbing a 200m-high smokestack and chaining themselves to the station's conveyor belt, says that if Kingsnorth is approved, the plant will emit 8m tonnes of CO2 a year, making it one of the most polluting plants in Europe.
Greenpeace spokesman Ben Stewart said: "Kingsnorth is one of the international climate change frontlines, so if [the camp] can bring the same public and pressure to bear as they did at Heathrow last year, that will pose a significant problem to Gordon Brown and his plans to build a new generation of coal-fired power stations."
Greenpeace has also warned that approval for Kingsnorth would pave the way for seven other similar sized or bigger coal-powered stations which it says are in the pipeline.
The announcement of the climate camp plans come a week after Plane Stupid activists scaled the roof of parliament, and Greenpeace activists breached security at Heathrow to climb up the tailfin of a BA Airbus 320. Both groups were protesting against the third runway at Heathrow
The action at Kingsnorth will be one of eight climate camps targeting coal across the world this summer, organisers said, including April 1 (fossil fools day), May 1 (Mayday) and June 3 (a day of action on food and climate change).
Last year the eight-day camp brought together 2,000 people near the village of Sipson and shut down BAA's headquarters for 24 hours. The camp also organised up to 20 smaller actions on other aviation and climate change-related targets.
This year's camp will also stage a day of action targeting the biofuels industry.
"Biofuels have been proposed as a solution to climate change. But new studies confirm that they are just as dangerous as fossil fuels," said Charlie Owens, a camp spokesman. "And they create the illusion we can carry on as usual. In the end we can only stop climate change if we challenge the growth economy and start putting people and planet first."
Benedict Southworth, director of the World Development Movement, said: "We welcome [the camp's] decision to go to Kingsnorth ... The government must consider the strength of public feeling, not just E.On's desire to make profit - and the only way to do that is to hold a public inquiry.
"A new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth will produce the same amount of climate-wrecking gas as Ghana does each year. It will undermine our ability to meet emissions reductions targets in the climate change bill and kill any chance we have of stopping catastrophic climate change. This will mean millions of unnecessary deaths in the developing world."
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