The White House got a rude awakening on Wednesday morning when protesters took over a crane on a nearby building site.

A group of seven members of Greenpeace including US Chair Karen Topakian scaled the structure to unveil a large orange banner with one word written on it in black, “Resist”.

The protest comes the day after President Donald Trump accelerated work on two big shale oil and tar sands pipelines which have been at the centre of myriad protests. The most notable of these has pitted the state and developers against the Standing Rock community in North Dakota.

BREAKING: Activists drop banner at the White House in resistance to Trump! Watch live: https://t.co/MpXE8ju5UH#ResistOftenpic.twitter.com/dBz5lRTHTx — Greenpeace USA (@greenpeaceusa) 25 janvier 2017

The incoming Republican administration is packed with fossil-fuel enthusiasts and climate change sceptics, and one of its first acts was to remove any mention of climate policy from the White House website.