The rally comes ahead of the Glasgow climate change conference.

Spokesperson from No Electricity From Forests (NEFF), Jane McIntyre, said the rally aimed to raise awareness about the degradation of forests for woodchipping and send a clear message that logging is "destructive and wasteful".

"We want to send the mill owners a message that not only won't we tolerate whole logs being burnt for electricity, but we won't stand by and see the export of woodchips from Newcastle resumed," Ms McIntyre said.

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"This industry is destructive and wasteful. We need our forests to stay in the ground for a whole host of vital reasons - to tackle climate change, to provide habitat for plants and animals such as koalas that are struggling after the mega-fires, to ensure water quality and stop erosion.

"You can plant a million seedlings and it will take decades before the carbon that went up in smoke is recovered from the atmosphere by the new growing trees.

"Burning our forests for electricity is so bizarre that people find it hard to believe. While the NSW government claims to be 'the clean energy superpower of the future', these plans are flying under the radar. No matter how you cut it, burning wood releases CO2 into the atmosphere and boosts global warming - just when the world needs to do exactly the opposite.

"It's 2021, we have climate and biodiversity crises and we need to get serious about it. Not in 2050, now."

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