CAN Citizen’s Arrest Network

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This afternoon, draft indictment papers accusing top executives at oil majors British Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell of public nuisance, were delivered to the Crown Prosecution Service. Attempts were also made to deliver the indictments to both companies’ central London headquarters^{1 2}.

The indictments were delivered to the CPS in place of citizens' arrests, as Citizen’s Arrest Network believes that all executive staff at both oil majors have been instructed to stay away from head offices. They believe this is in response to citizen’s arrests which were carried out on three top execs at oil and gas companies Harbour Energy, Enquest and Serica Energy on Monday. Copies of the indictments against BP executives were also handed in to Holborn Police Station and those relating to the leadership at Shell were taken to Charing Cross Police Station.

Both Shell and BP are responsible for 50 and 30 million times more CO2 than the average UK citizen respectively, with both CEO’s receiving in excess of £5m and £8m in salary and bonuses and paying dividends of £8bn and £17.7bn to shareholders³. In 2024 BP also received £35m in government subsidies⁴. The known effects of climate change, which Shell and BP have long understood to be caused by fossil fuel extraction⁵⁶, causes a public nuisance with huge risks and damage caused by pollution, flooding, extreme heat and disruption to food supplies.

Danielle McHallam, who delivered indictment papers to Shell, said: “I’m sick of no accountability in our society, frankly. Every day, hard working people get punished by having to pay more in household bills, or fined if we can’t pay those bills on time. At the same time, my monthly food bill is going up because of climate impacts on food production and imports, impacts which are caused by the decisions the likes of Shell CEO Wael Sawan make.

“It couldn’t be clearer at this point that climate change is a public nuisance. Why should we expect our lives to get easier if there’s going to be no attempt to stop the problem at the source?”

BP has also recently come under fire following their huge watering down of renewable energy goals, where they cut their £4bn a year commitment, to £1.5bn and pushed their emissions reduction target 2030 target, back to 2050. Meanwhile, the British oil major is set to increase investment in oil and gas by £8bn a year [3].

Rev Helen Burnett, delivered indictment papers to BP, commenting: “For me, this campaign is a litmus test. I'm skeptical that our judicial system is fit for purpose, and this will test it. At the moment, the law protects the rich, and the law should be there to protect all people and to allow for the flourishing of all people. Right now the highest emitters are effectively above the law, while the poorest and the most vulnerable to climate change remain unprotected.

“Those people whose emissions are harming our biodiversity, our environment, polluting the air, need to be called to account, and if the law can't do that, then the law is an ass and is not worth the paper that it's written on.”

The delivery of the indictment papers follows citizen’s arrests on Serica Energy Corporate Affairs Officer Stephen Lambert, Chief Executive Officer Harbour Energy and former Shell Gas & Power, Linda Z Cook, Enquest Chief Financial Officer, Jonathan Copus on Monday. Last week two executives at Thames Water, Chris Weston and Alastair Cochran, were also placed under citizen's arrest under suspicion of committing multiple counts of public nuisance⁷

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