An army of climate change activists rolled into Putney on Monday evening for a lively debate which is part of a month-long 60-mile procession travelling from Heathrow to Kingsnorth power station in Kent.

The Climate Caravan began its trek on Sunday, walking or cycling from the embattled airport and finishing on August 3 at Kingsnorth, the UK’s first new coal-fired power station in 30 years.

Titled Turning the World Upside Down, the debate was designed to mirror the Putney Debates of 1647 where the common man had the idea that "the poorest he that is in England hath a life to live, as the greatest he".

Using that statement as a basis for the debate on climate change but instead swapping the "poorest he" for the Third World and the "greatest he" for the developed West.

The 100-strong audience heard speeches from a range of organisations from across the climate spectrum, including Andrew Simms of the New Economics Foundation, Andy Goldring of the Permaculture Association, Leila Deen from the World Development Movement and Shahrar Ali of the Green Party.

But the star of the evening was Penny Eastwood of the Climate Caravan, whose passionate and inspiring speech roused the crowd and set the tone for the rest of the debate.

She said: "The weight of history and the ghosts of the past are watching us here.

"I feel we are creating history. The spirit of this place lives on and we are trying to recapture that spirit tonight.

"This Government is criminally irresponsible, and I absolve myself of them and do not recognise them.

"We must stop this craven slavishness to big business and change the way we act. When change comes it always comes from below, look at the abolition of slaver, suffragettes and the Putney Debates.

"This caravan is filling me with wild hope of what can be achieved."

• To join the Climate Caravan for the next leg of its mission, email caravan@climatecamp.org.uk or call 07951789187