MPF demands R$ 541 million in compensation from Shell for flooding in RS

In the climate Public Civil Action, MPF and the institute maintain that there is a link between emissions from the fossil fuel chain, global warming and the intensification of rains responsible for the devastation of the state in that period.

The action does not attribute exclusive responsibility to Shell for the tragedy, argues the MPF. The allegation would be that the company must respond for its alleged historical and ongoing contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and the role of these emissions in the intensification of extreme events.

g1 contacted Shell Brasil's communications team requesting a position on the action, but did not receive a response until the publication of this report.

According to the authors of the action, three complementary analyzes support the causal link, the link between an activity and the damage. Warming attribution identifies the role of human emissions in rising global temperatures, they argue. Source attribution estimates the historical contribution of large fossil fuel producers. The attribution of extreme events assesses the extent to which warming has worsened a specific episode, such as the rains in Rio Grande do Sul.

“The action combines legal innovation and technical rigor, based on scientific studies that allow demonstrating the causal link between greenhouse gas emissions, climate change and the increase in the probability and intensity of extreme events, such as the rains that caused the floods in Rio Grande do Sul in 2024”, says Thales Miola, lawyer at Instituto Preservar.

Instituto Preservar is a non-profit association founded in 2003 and based in Rio Grande do Sul. For more than two decades, it has worked to defend the environment, human rights and socio-environmental justice, with a history linked to peasant communities, traditional peoples and communities and rural workers. It develops research, training activities and legal actions aimed at environmental protection, the promotion of agroecology and combating the impacts of pesticides and climate change, articulating scientific knowledge and community experience.