Greenpeace International Executive Director Kumi Naidoo and activist Ulvar Arnkvaern from Norway board The Leiv Eiriksson. Naidoo and Arnkvaern enter an exclusion zone to scale a controversial Arctic oil rig 120km off the coast of Greenland.

At 5am this morning an inflatable speedboat carrying Naidoo and Arnkvaern was launched from the Greenpeace ship Esperanza. It evaded a Danish navy warship that has been circling the rig for several weeks. They then climbed a 30 metre ladder up the outside of one of the platform's giant legs to deliver a 50,000 signature petition demanding the public release of Cairn Energy's oil spill response plan.

Their action comes a week after the operators of the oil platform, Cairn Energy, obtained an injunction against Greenpeace from a Dutch court, imposing fines of 50,000 Euros a day for any breach of the exclusion zone.