Day 8 #BPShutdown: Greenpeace ship, Arctic Sunrise, arrives at the scene

We are in the middle of #ClimateEmergency. Thousands of people around the world, from heads of state to school-age strikers, demand an immediate and just transition to a carbon-free future. Yet, despite his green talk and rhetoric about his alignment with the goals of the Paris deal, BP continues to make progress in oil extraction.

They currently have a 27,000-ton oil rig off the coast of Scotland, with the aim of drilling new wells and 30 million barrels of oil. We can not allow this to happen.

On the evening of Sunday 9 June, a team of Greenpeace activists lined up next to the platform as it prepared to leave Scotland's Cromarty Firth. They climbed the platform, halted it, and hung a banner displaying the only two words necessary to describe the drilling madness for more oil: Climate Emergency

Eight days later, we are still facing BP and the whole world continues to watch us.

The next phase of our work to hold BP accountable has not been written yet. But here is a chronology of the course of events up to now. The course of this chronology depends on the bravery of our activists and the support of millions of people around the world united in their request for #NoMoreOil. Join us and help write the next chapter of our future without fossil fuels.

Here is what has happened so far:

DAY 1 (Sunday, June 9): At 6:30 pm, a team of Greenpeace UK boat activists settles near the Cromarty Firth oil rig in Scotland to prevent him from leaving. They resize it and unfold a banner declaring "Climate emergency".

DAY 2 (Monday, June 10): Two activists, Fran and Jo, stay in situ on a gantry on one leg of the platform, under the main deck. Pete and Tom exchange in the evening and have provisions stay in place for days.

DAY 3 (Tuesday 11 June): Greenpeace UK is banned – the equivalent in Scottish law of a Scottish injunction – to prevent the continued occupation of the platform. Construction site workers try to lower the injunction with a bucket and a rope to the two activists.

DAY 4 (Wednesday, June 12): The platform is busy and unable to move.

DAY 5 (Thursday, June 13): Scottish police have made attempts to dismiss activists. Always resourceful, an activist attaches to the anchor chain. In the evening, police boats and climbers manage to remove both. At this point, Greenpeace stopped the platform for more than 70 hours.

DAY 6 (Friday, June 14): At 4 am, a new team of Greenpeace UK activists climbed one of the gantry's feet to climb back on BP's oil rig! It was only a few hours after the Scottish police declared the occupation over. This pair, Meena and Andrew, occupy the platform all day but the police kidnapped them that night. Shortly after The Transocean platform is towed out of the Cromarty Firth to the planned drilling site.

DAY 7 (Saturday, June 15): On Day 7, injunctions are also in effect against Greenpeace ships, the Arctic Sunrise and Esperanza. Challenge, the Arctic Sunrise is on track for Scotland, sailing north along the east coast of the UK, trying to catch up with the platform. A climbing team from Greenpeace Germany is on board. Through United Kingdom solidarity events with the banners "Climate Emergency" begin to appear on the outside BP gas stations.

#BPShutdown to make a world without climate change #nomoreoil pic.twitter.com/prx2fQULWF

– Berkshire Greenpeace (@berksgp) June 15, 2019

DAY 8 (Sunday 16 June): Greenpeace ships the Arctic Sunrise manages to catch up with the oil rig in the North Sea. In an unexpected turn, the platform makes a U-turn and begins to return to the Scottish coast. It is too early to know what he is doing and why he has flip-flopped. But we intend to stay with that in an attempt to thwart their plans to drill for more oil. More updates soon …

Sophie Allain is a global strategist on the oil team of Greenpeace International.