15 October 2026 | RoyalDutchShellPlc.com
A remarkable new chapter in climate litigation is unfolding on opposite sides of the world. In Brazil, federal prosecutors and an environmental organisation are seeking approximately $108 million from a Shell subsidiary over catastrophic floods that killed nearly 200 people in 2024. In Britain, more than 100 survivors of a devastating Philippine typhoon are pursuing Shell for losses suffered in December 2021. The cases raise a question with potentially enormous consequences for the fossil fuel industry: can a major oil and gas producer be made legally responsible for a measurable proportion of the damage caused by an individual climate-related disaster?
While politicians talk endlessly about climate targets and energy transitions, the oil industry tends to operate on a much simpler principle: 
Shell’s Jungle Cat Pounces: 370 Million Barrels of Oil, and a Big Middle Finger to the Climate. 
Ah, Shell and ExxonMobil—the undisputed kings of environmental devastation—are back at it again! This time, they’re teaming up with Petrobras, Brazil’s state-run oil giant, to grace Africa with their toxic touch. Yes, because what Africa really needs right now is more foreign oil companies swooping in to exploit its natural resources. It’s like watching vultures circle a dying animal, except the animal is the entire planet.
Ah, Shell. The same company that has perfected the art of environmental destruction, employee exploitation, and moral bankruptcy now wants us all to get excited about its shiny new biofuels project in Brazil. Because, apparently, nothing says “we care about the planet” like an oil giant boasting about squeezing a few more drops of ethanol out of sugarcane while continuing to plunder the earth’s resources.
If you worked for Shell in the 1990s or early 2000s, and have any information to share on Todd Staheli and his career – in Brazil, Ukraine, London, Saudi Arabia, Houston and elsewhere – please contact me at 
REUTERS
