With the Camp for Climate Action protest less than two weeks away, leaders of the UK’s largest climate change coalition have written to Gordon Brown urging him to say no to coal.

The Stop Climate Chaos Coalition (SCC), includes groups as diverse as the National Federation of Women’s Institute, Christian Aid, RSPB and Greenpeace.

All came together in Hoo on Tuesday to highlight their dedication to the cause, by planting flags in the ground at a Kingsnorth farm.

More than 3,000 protestors are expected to descend on Medway next weekend to demonstrate against E.ON’s bid to build a new coal fired plant on the peninsula.

The SCC have now joined the campaign saying giving the green light to Kingsnorth will ‘lock Britain into decades of spiralling emissions and severely undermine the government’s ability to meet its climate targets.’

In a letter to the prime-minister the coalition describes Kingsnorth as one of the most important climate change decisions of his premiership.

The SCC has a combined membership of four million bringing together more than 70 organisations and is dedicated to action on climate change and limiting its impact on the world’s poorest communities

The press call came in the same week as a parlimentary Environment Audit Committee released a report which says owners of coal-fired power stations need to be set a deadline to clean up their emissions or risk having such plants shut down.

It urges ministers to take steps to develop ways of capturing and storing carbon produced by burning fossil fuels.

Ashok Sinha, Director of the Stop Climate Chaos Coalition said: “The variety of groups that are here shows there is a breadth of opinion.

“It is very important to show our feelings. It is not just the green movement anymore that is concerned about climate change it is all of us.

“Climate change presents us with a great deal of problems. The reality is that a thriving renewable industry would help us avoid disastrous climate change, create thousands of jobs and keep the lights on.”

Ruth Davis, Head of Climate Change Policy at the RSPB said: “Climate change is a potential disaster for birds and other wildlife as well as for people.

“To avoid irreversible damage to precious ecosystems, we must make deep cuts in emissions over the next decade - and that means switching to clean forms of energy.”

Fay Mansell, Chair of the National Federation of Women’s Institute said: “Women across the world are being hit hardest by climate change and have a key role to play in helping their families and communities adapt.

“The WI is here today to call for green energy decisions to be made now to protect our future.”