LEGAL action against environment campaign Greenpeace by energy profiteer Shell has been labelled an “intimidation lawsuit” in a letter supported by more than 100,000 people.

Supporters include more than 30 public figures such as Stephen Fry, Benedict Cumberbatch and Greta Thunberg, and organisations like Amnesty International and Friends of the Earth.

The legal action centres on a Greenpeace action in 2023 in which a moving oil platform was occupied in protest against climate change and damage caused by Shell.

Shell is demanding around $1 million (£794,000) in damages and legal costs that could total millions, which Greenpeace says is one of its biggest legal threats in its history of more than half a century.  

Celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who signed the letter, said the lawsuit was “the ugly face of the fossil fuel industry, flexing its muscles to show it really doesn’t care about the climate crisis.”

Shell said the company and its contractors were “entitled to recover the significant costs of responding to Greenpeace’s dangerous actions.”