Shell plc To the CEO, Mr W. Sawan To the Executive Committee (Mr W. Sawan, CEO) To the Board of Directors (Sir Andrew Mackenzie, Chairman) Shell Centre LONDON, SE1 7NA UNITED KINGDOM
Subject: Notice of liability and announcement of new legal proceedings
May 13, 2025
Dear Mr Sawan, dear Sir Andrew Mackenzie, Milieudefensie (Friends of the Earth Netherlands) is writing to you as the CEO, the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors of Shell plc to formally notify you that Milieudefensie intends to start new legal proceedings against Shell plc (“Shell”) before the Dutch courts. Milieudefensie believes that Shell is in breach of its legal duty of care under Dutch law, due to its continued investment in new oil and gas fields and its inadequate climate policy for the period 2030 to 2050.
As you are well aware, human-caused climate change is a major threat to human well-being and planetary health. The devastating impacts of climate change are evident worldwide, seen in weather and climate extremes such as heatwaves, heavy precipitation, droughts and storms.1
Climate change has already caused substantial damages, and increasingly irreversible losses to ecosystems worldwide,2 has reduced food security and has affected water security.3 Approximately 3.3 to 3.6 billion people live in contexts that are highly vulnerable to climate change.4
The climate crisis is essentially a fossil fuels crisis. Over 80% of CO2 emissions are caused by the production and use of fossil fuels, with over half of those emissions caused by oil and gas.5 The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (“IPCC”) has established that, for decades, fossil fuel companies have individually and jointly undermined effective climate policy through intense lobbying and doubt-inducing media-strategies.6
Shell and other fossil fuel companies are still actively undermining the clean energy transition by lobbying for and investing in long-term fossil fuel dependence, even though it is of the utmost importance to rapidly transition away from fossil fuels.
In light of the severity and risks of the climate crisis, courts around the world and intergovernmental organizations consistently recognise that climate change is a major and immediate threat to the enjoyment of human rights. They also emphasise that this threat must urgently be addressed by reducing CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible in order to limit global warming to 1.5°C. The IPCC has definitively found that “there is a rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.”7
Every ton of CO2 emitted adds to global warming and every increment of global warming will intensify multiple and concurrent hazards in all regions of the world.8 Some future changes are already unavoidable, but deep, rapid, and sustained mitigation actions would reduce projected losses and damages for humans and ecosystems, while delayed mitigation action would lock in high-emissions infrastructure, raise risks of stranded assets and cost-escalation, reduce feasibility, and thus increase these losses and damages.9
The most recent version of the Global Risks Report by the World Economic Forum shows that environmental risks dominate the global risks landscape. The report lists (i) extreme weather, (ii) biodiversity loss and ecosystems collapse, (iii) critical change to Earth systems and (iv) natural resource shortages as the four most severe global challenges, which are projected to intensify over the next decade.10 In fact, nearly all environmental risks are included in the top 10 long-term global risks.11 Extreme weather events are also listed as the second most pressing and severe concern in the short term.12 The Global Risks Report finds:
“The burden of climate change is becoming more evident every year, as pollution from continued use of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas leads to more frequent and severe extreme weather events. Heatwaves across parts of Asia; flooding in Brazil, Indonesia and parts of Europe; wildfires in Canada; and hurricanes Helene and Milton in the United States are just some recent examples of such events.”13
A board member of Allianz SE, one of the world’s biggest insurance companies, warned just over a month ago that the world is fast approaching temperature levels where insurers will no longer be able to offer cover for many climate risks.14 At the current level of warming, insurers are already ending or limiting insurance coverage and this will continue. The board member (formerly CEO of Allianz Investment Management) calls climate change a systemic risk “threatening the very foundation of the financial sector”.15 The message adds to a growing body of urgent calls by the insurance industry and the wider financial sector regarding the existential threats posed by climate change.16