Filipino Typhoon survivors sue Shell in UK over role in deadly storm

Survivors of a devastating typhoon in the Philippines have launched a landmark lawsuit in the UK against oil and gas giant Shell, claiming the company’s historic emissions helped make the storm more intense and destructive.

The case, filed at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, is believed to be the first brought by climate-disaster victims against a major UK-based fossil fuel producer.

Typhoon Rai – known locally as Odette – struck the Philippines just before Christmas 2021 with winds of up to 170mph (270km/h). Around 400 people were killed, hundreds of thousands were displaced and millions of homes were damaged. Roughly 2,000 buildings were destroyed.

Among those affected was fish vendor Trixy Elle, who lived on Batasan Island. She recalls her family having to swim through huge waves in the dark as their home was torn apart, with her father telling them to hold hands, saying they would survive or die together.

Trixy is now one of 67 Filipino claimants suing Shell. Their legal team says the case is being brought in the UK because Shell is domiciled there, but the law of the Philippines will apply, as that is where the harm occurred.

In a pre-action letter sent to Shell, the survivors argue the company is responsible for about 2% of historical global greenhouse gas emissions, citing figures from the Carbon Majors database. That contribution, they say, means Shell “materially” drove human-induced climate change, which in turn made Typhoon Rai more likely and more severe.

The claimants also accuse the company of having a long-standing “history of climate misinformation”, arguing that Shell has known since at least 1965 that fossil fuels were the primary driver of global warming yet chose to continue expanding its business.

“Instead of changing their industry, they still do their business,” Trixy says, accusing the company of choosing “profit over people” and “money over the planet”.

Shell strongly disputes the case. The company denies that its oil and gas production can be linked to the specific impacts of Typhoon Rai and rejects any suggestion that it held special, secret knowledge about climate change.

“This is a baseless claim, and it will not help tackle climate change or reduce emissions,” a spokesperson said, adding that the causes of climate change and potential responses have been the subject of open scientific and public debate for decades.

The lawsuit is being backed by environmental campaign groups who argue that advances in event attribution science now make it possible to quantify how much human-caused climate change has influenced particular storms, heatwaves or floods.