Oliver Conway

Now victims of the disaster are suing the oil and gas company Shell, accusing it of contributing to climate change and therefore making such weather events more severe.

I call on Shell to pay.

I heard more about the case from our business correspondent, Nick Marsh.

This is a group of 67 victims of Typhoon Rai, known as Super Typhoon Adet locally in the Philippines.

We're talking exactly four years ago actually is when this typhoon formed and caused all the devastation that you mentioned.

Their argument is that the science shows that this particular storm would not have been as powerful

were it not for climate change.

In fact, they say it was twice as powerful due to climate change.

And who has contributed to that?

Well, the fossil fuel companies, of course.

And they have decided to single out Shell and sue them in the United Kingdom, where the company's headquartered, with the aim of getting a significant amount of compensation.

And ultimately, if you listen to the environmental groups who are backing these claimants, kick off a series of similar lawsuits against other companies in the future.

And what does Shell have to say about this?

Shell's called the claim baseless.

It's pretty clear they're going to be fighting this quite hard in the court.

Their argument, essentially, is that their production of oil and gas didn't contribute to this individual typhoon.

I mean, the Philippines does get a lot of powerful typhoons.

And that ultimately, Olly, is what the court will need to be convinced of.

Another important claim in this lawsuit is that Shell has known for decades, so since the 1960s in fact, that burning fossil fuels is the primary driver of human-led climate change, but instead, for a long time, chose to hide this information and misinform the public and the wider industry.

Now again, Shell says that's simply not true, that it had any kind of unique knowledge about climate change.