Survivors of a devastating 2021 typhoon in the Philippines have filed a landmark lawsuit in the United Kingdom against oil giant Shell, accusing the company of contributing to climate-driven destruction that claimed hundreds of lives. Three supporting NGOs — including Greenpeace — announced the legal action on Thursday.
Typhoon Rai, which tore through southern and central Philippines in December 2021, uprooted communities, flattened homes, and triggered massive flooding.
More than 400 people were killed, while hundreds of thousands were left homeless in one of the country’s worst natural disasters in recent years.
The suit, lodged by British law firm Hausfeld on behalf of 103 survivors, argues that Shell’s historic carbon emissions helped fuel climate change, intensifying the typhoon’s destructive power. Scientists have long warned that warming oceans — caused largely by human activity — are accelerating the intensity and rapid strengthening of tropical storms.
In their joint statement, the NGOs called the lawsuit “a decisive step to hold oil giant Shell accountable for the deaths, injuries, and destruction left by the climate-fuelled storm.” They said the case reflects a growing international push to make major fossil-fuel producers answer for climate damage, particularly in vulnerable regions of the Global South.
Momentum for such cases has been building. In May, a German court ruled that companies could, in principle, be liable for harm linked to their emissions — a decision activists say could spur similar rulings around the world.
Shell dismissed the UK lawsuit as meritless. “This is a baseless claim, and it will not help tackle climate change or reduce emissions,” a spokesperson said. “The suggestion that Shell had unique knowledge about climate change is simply not true.”
The case has already been listed on the UK High Court’s official website.
‘Lives Lost, Homes Destroyed’
The claimants are seeking financial compensation for lives lost, injuries sustained, and property destroyed. The coalition behind the suit — including the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice and the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center — said the case is “a vital contribution to the growing global push to challenge the impunity of fossil fuel companies.”
Shell and other energy majors have recently scaled back climate commitments as they pivot toward boosting oil and gas production to raise profits.
One claimant, 34-year-old Trixy Elle, described how her family home and four fishing boats were swept away by Rai’s storm surge. “Island residents like us contribute only a small percentage of pollution. But who gets the short stick? The poor like us,” she told AFP, adding that her 13-year-old son still suffers trauma from the storm.
The United Nations later said early estimates had “badly underestimated” Rai’s impact, tripling the number of people seriously affected to nine million.
The Philippines, one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries, is battered by about 20 storms each year — a burden experts warn is only worsening with rising global temperatures.
This UK lawsuit follows a landmark advisory ruling by the International Court of Justice in July, which declared that states have a legal obligation to confront the threat of climate change.
Although advisory opinions are not legally binding, they carry significant weight and are expected to influence national courts, lawmakers, and corporate policy worldwide.
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