give coal the boot

How do you measure success? Many times, it’s difficult to point to one specific moment when a campaign delivers a big moment that demonstrates, beyond any doubt, that you've succeeded.

Well, our thanks go to E.ON for providing that moment for our coal campaign late last night – just as we were leaving the office, in fact. On my way to the pub, I met a press officer running back towards the front door – "E.ON have shelved Kingsnorth – just got to go and check if it's real, see you in a few…"

He never made it to the pub, because as the evening unfolded it became clear that E.ON were, indeed, after a three year public campaign, kicking their plans for the massively controversial coal plant into the long grass – which would have been the first to be built in Britain since Drax was completed more than 20 years ago.

UK Climate Campers taking their message to E.ON's Munich headquarters

I hope you remember this year's Climate Camp in the shadow of Kingsnorth coal plant in Kent. All the police intimidation, direct actions and ultimately the acquittal of our Kingsnorth six. The events in the past few months should have been enough for E.ON to see the level of public unease at their plans for Kingsnorth. But the giant energy utility is still insisting on building Britain's first coal-fired power station in over 30 years there. So, this time climate campers decided to take their message to E.ON on its own turf in Munich, Germany.

I'll be adding to this map throughout the tour (zoom out to see events during the global tour).

See all Rainbow Warrior tour updates or get them by email.

Some time yesterday morning (was it really yesterday morning?), I left the Greenpeace office, took a short tube ride eastwards, crossed a gang plank and fell through a rabbit hole into the weird and wonderful world that is a Greenpeace ship. And not just any Greenpeace ship, but our flagship Rainbow Warrior II, which is so tied up with Greenpeace's history. 

With the Rainbow Warrior on her way to the UK, we thought we'd put together a slideshow to share a few of the highs - and lows - of her remarkable history. Our flagship, the Rainbow Warrior has travelled from South America to the South Pacific, the Antarctic to the Atlantic - an icon for environmentalists around the globe.

The ship coming to the UK is of course the Rainbow Warrior II; the original vessel was sunk in 1985 by French government agents trying to foil protests at their nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific. (The ship's name was inspired by a Native American prophecy which foretells a time when human greed would make the world sick, and warriors of the rainbow would come together to save it.)

See all Rainbow Warrior tour updates or get them by email.

She's our world famous flagship, she's helped to win Greenpeace campaigns across the globe and now she's coming to the UK to persuade Gordon Brown to Give Coal the Boot.