Greenpeace Arctic Sunrise with banner reading "People vs. Arctic Oil" in the foreground. Statoil rig Songa Enabler in the background.

11 peaceful activists from the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise have taken to the water in inflatable boats with handheld banners to oppose Statoil Songa Enabler oil rig, 275 km North of the Norwegian coast, in the Arctic Barents sea.

Climate change survivor and activist Joanna Sustento from the Philippines, and actress and activist Lucy Lawless from New Zealand, are among the 19 nationalities who have travelled to the high Northern waters onboard the Arctic Sunrise. Sustento wants the Norwegian government to take responsibility for its climate commitments and development of a new oil frontier in the Arctic. She lost her entire family, except for her brother, to Super-typhoon Haiyan in 2013 which left large parts of her hometown, Tacloban, in ruins.