Brazil's Federal Public Prosecutor's Office (MPF) has filed a civil public action against Shell Brasil seeking more than R$ 541 million (roughly US$ 100 million) in damages over the floods that hit the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul between April and May 2024 and left 183 people dead. The court document was obtained by AFP on Friday (9) and reported by Folha de S.Paulo.
According to Exame magazine, which also reviewed the filing, the claim is split into two equal parts of R$ 270.5 million: one for environmental and collective moral climate damages, the other for material damages. The MPF argues that Shell Brasil's liability should be proportional to its parent company's contribution to global warming, estimated at about 2% of all historical worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, linked to the exploration, production and sale of fossil fuels.
The torrential rains of 2024 caused historic flooding across the state. Cities in the Porto Alegre metropolitan area, such as Canoas, were submerged, around 500,000 people were displaced and material damage reached unprecedented levels, AFP reported.
"This civil public action seeks the environmental and climate civil liability of the defendant company for material and collective moral damages resulting from the extreme climate event that hit the state of Rio Grande do Sul between April and May 2024," the MPF states in the filing.
The NGO Instituto Preservar is a co-plaintiff in the case. "The costs of climate damage should not fall only on society and on those who lost everything in the tragedy. Major polluters, which contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, must also answer for the losses they help cause," Thales Miola, a lawyer for the institute, told Exame.
According to Maria Antonia Tigre, of Columbia University's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, this is the first time a prosecutorial body like the MPF has sued a major oil company over a climate catastrophe. The move adds to a global wave of litigation against oil giants: the British-based Shell already faces a lawsuit in the United Kingdom brought by victims of a typhoon in the Philippines.
In an email sent to AFP, Shell Brasil said it "has not received official notification of the mentioned lawsuit."