“No matter how small we are, no matter how ordinary we are, we can do something,” says Trixy Elle, a survivor of Super Typhoon Odette and one of the more than 100 claimants suing the oil company Shell in the UK courts, demanding accountability and financial compensation for the losses they experienced.
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As Odette, known globally as Rai, tore across the Philippines days before Christmas four years ago, in a matter of hours Elle’s home on Batasan Island in Bohol province, which is already suffering from climate-induced sea-level rise, was destroyed. Elle, 34, her elderly parents, brother, husband and two young children were forced to swim against flood waters at night to escape.
The case is the first ever civil claim to directly link polluting companies to deaths and personal injuries that have already happened in the global south. The claim argues that Shell – which is responsible for 2% of historical global greenhouse gases according to the Carbon Majors database – has contributed to the climate crisis, which intensified the typhoon’s impact. Odette killed more than 400 people and displaced nearly 3.2 million.
Reporter Jhesset O Enano attended a protest outside Shell’s headquarters in London on the anniversary of the super typhoon, held by organisations including Greenpeace Philippines, Fossil Free London and groups representing the Filipino diaspora. There, people sang carols and lit parols – star-shaped lanterns “which symbolise hope and light amid darkness” – campaigners said they hoped the case would inspire other communities to hold companies to account.
A Shell spokesperson said: “This is a baseless claim, and it will not help tackle climate change or reduce emissions. The suggestion that Shell had unique knowledge about climate change is simply not true. The issue and how to tackle it has been part of public discussion and scientific research for many decades.”
Find out more ► https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/oct/23/we-are-now-fighting-back-philippines-typhoon-survivors-to-sue-shell-for-climate-harms
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