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Pollution from oil and gas giant Shell is found responsible for nearly a quarter (24%) of the world’s heatwaves, as calls grow for fossil fuel companies to pay compensation for mounting climate harms.
New analysis by the Odette Case campaign, which is supporting a group of Filipinos taking Shell to court for its contribution to a devastating super typhoon, comes as the UK experiences its hottest summer on record.
Calls are growing for the industries driving climate change - including fossil fuel companies like Shell - to pay for the damage caused by extreme weather now being witnessed around the world. This includes the devastating recent floods in Nepal, and the deadly heatwaves in the UK, which has suffered its hottest summer since records began.
In September, the Met Office revealed that the UK’s mean temperature over the summer was made around 130 times more likely due to human-induced climate change.
The UK’s extreme heat has already caused thousands of deaths, devastating wildfires and droughts, and may have cost the UK economy alone more than £4bn. Meanwhile, in just the first six months of this year, Shell made profits of over £12 billion, a 70% increase compared to the first half of last year, thanks in part to the impact of the Iran conflict on oil prices.
Why is Shell to blame for the heatwaves?
The analysis is based on a study by Swiss scientists published in Nature (Quilcaille et al., 2025) which found that climate change enabled 55 previously impossible heatwaves to occur, and each of the 180 largest fossil fuel and cement producers emitted enough to enable most of them.
The paper analysed 213 global heatwaves reported between 2000 and 2023 and found all were made more likely and more intense by human-induced climate change emissions.
Analysis of the study’s supplementary data carried out by the Odette Case campaign shows that Shell’s pollution alone made nearly a quarter of the heatwaves (24%) at least 10,000 times more likely.
Madeleine Lynch, a campaigner with the Odette Case, said:
“Most people are now wise to the central role that oil companies play in driving climate change.
“Whether it’s the thousands of heat-related deaths this summer, and the wildfires and severe drought affecting the UK, or the devastating storms and flooding overseas, oil giants like Shell are heaping the costs of these disasters onto ordinary people, while ignoring the harm they’re inflicting on us. Meanwhile, they’re still pushing for more drilling, like the Rosebank oil field, in pursuit of bigger profits.
“If this group of ordinary men and women in the Philippines who saw their homes, their lives, and their children's lives destroyed by Typhoon Odette are able to make Shell pay for their losses, it could change everything. The era of these corporate giants avoiding responsibility for the harm they cause could come to an end. And as we’ve seen in the UK this summer, with its record heat, it could help pay for the disruption and damage to lives, homes, farming, infrastructure and wildlife."
Does the public think fossil fuel companies should pay up for climate damage?
A Survation survey commissioned by the Odette Case earlier in the year found that four in ten people in the UK (41%) think fossil fuel companies such as Shell and BP should start paying compensation for the damage caused by climate change.
Of those, most (54%) want to see oil firms pay for the cost of repairing damage to homes caused by more extreme weather, as well as compensation for loss of income or livelihoods (45%) and personal payments to anyone injured, traumatised or even bereaved by climate-induced weather disasters (45%).
What’s the cost of extreme heat?
Robert Palmer, Deputy Director of Uplift, said:
“Scientists cannot be clearer that climate change is being driven by the burning of fossil fuels. These new figures show Shell is responsible for nearly a quarter of global heatwaves over the last 25 years. As well as the human cost, the price for countries to try to adapt to the changing weather is spiralling. In the UK we’ve seen wildfires destroy homes, farmers lose crops and income, trains derailed and workers unable to cope in extreme heat.
“Shell and other oil and gas profiteers should cover the cost of the crisis they’ve helped to create, rather than leaving it to individuals and taxpayers. Shell is making billions, including an Iran war bonus, while the rest of us are left carrying the costs in unaffordable energy bills and extreme weather.”
Recent analysis by the Climate Change Committee shows that climate change is costing the UK economy up to £60bn a year today, a figure that could rise to £260 billion annually in less than 25 years’ time. As well as loss of life, costs include repairing flood damage to homes, businesses and farming income losses.
Added Palmer:
“For far too long we’ve heard the mantra drill baby drill, which is an excuse for oil and gas giants to bill baby bill. Now it’s time for Shell and other fossil fuel giants to pick up the tab for the damage they have caused.”
How can Shell be held accountable?
The Odette Case is the first of its kind with claimants suing Shell in the UK courts for compensation for its role over many decades in contributing to climate change. It is being brought by over 100 people in the Philippines whose lives were devastated by a super typhoon in 2021, known locally as Typhoon Odette.
The UK claim was filed at the Royal Courts of Justice in December 2025, with the particulars filed in July 2026. The survivors argue that Shell has contributed to climate change, which made Odette more likely and more severe. It is the first time that an oil company has been sued in the UK for death, injury, and property destruction caused by an extreme weather event.
NOTES
Survation polling of 2,000 people in the UK was carried out in July 2026.