As the company faces a landmark climate lawsuit, confidential documents show how British scientist James Lovelock warned executives of the risks of burning fossil fuels in the 1960s.
Rebecca John Jul 29, 2026 DeSmog Blog
“What seems to be important,” wrote the visionary British scientist, James Lovelock, in June 1966, is “the almost certain fact that the climate is worsening and the probability that the combustion of fuel is responsible.”
Commissioned by Shell, the memo was the first in a series of secret reports by Lovelock for the UK oil giant exploring the “large scale atmospheric effects” of burning fossil fuels.
Sixty years later, evidence of Shell’s early knowledge of the climate impacts of its activities is being thrown into the spotlight by a first-of-its kind civil lawsuit, filed last December at the Royal Court of Justice in London. Lawyers are due to make a further filing against Shell, known as “the particulars” of the case, on Friday.
