Climate change drama aims for world's most ecofriendly premiere

Pete Postlethwaite as the archivist in the Age of Stupid Photograph: Age of Stupid

Red carpet will be replaced by green and celebrities will arrive in cars powered by cooking oil next month as Leicester Square prepares for the premiere of climate change film The Age of Stupid, whose makers are billing it as the world's greenest premiere.

Pete Postlethwaite, who stars in the film as an archivist in 2050 looking back at the opportunities mankind had to stop climate change, will arrive in a solar-powered car. Other celebrities will arrive in electric vehicles, low-CO2 cars or on bicycles at the premiere on 15 March. Stars will be discouraged from flying to the premiere to avoid accusations of hypocrisy after the recent spat between transport secretary Geoff Hoon and actor Emma Thompson over Heathrow's third runway.

Other vehicles and back-up generators will run on biodiesel made from recycled vegetable oil from chip shops around Leicester Square.

A sustainably-made "green" carpet will replace the traditional luxurious red carpet. The projector will be powered by batteries charged from solar panels and the tent will be lit by gas from London landfill sites, and heated with stoves using "eco-logs" made from recycled free London newspapers, and possibly also horse manure.

Once the green carpet has been rolled up, climate change consultants will produce a full eco-audit of emissions from the event and compare the results with a Hollywood-style premiere. Offsetting, which the organisers describe as "palpable nonsense", will not be used to reduce the real emissions figures.

Organisers are aiming to enter the Guinness Book of Records by creating the world's largest premiere. As the film is screened in Leicester Square, 64 cinemas across the country will also premiere the film for a one-off showing before it goes on general release on 20 March. The aim is to attract 16,000 cinema goers to the "People's Premiere" on 15 March.

The Age of Stupid filmmakers also hope to succeed where other climate change films have failed – the "earnest" 11th Hour , which featured Leonardo DiCaprio, and Al Gore's lecture, An Inconvenient Truth — to galvanise cinema-goers into action.

Director Franny Armstrong said she will judge success not just at the box office but on turning viewers into climate change activists. The Not Stupid campaign launches on the same day as the premiere with the aim of signing up 250m viewers to take action on climate change in the lead up to the UN climate change summit in December.