Spoof Shell Oil adverts pop up at bus stops boasting ‘Climate breakdown? We cause it’

‘Shell: Burning your Future,’ one poster masquerading as an advert says

A bus stop in southeast London carries a spoof Shell poster (Zoe Tidman)

Spoof adverts for Shell have appeared on UK bus stops with slogans such as “Climate breakdown: We cause it”,

The posters carry the logo and brand colours of the oil and gas giant but accuse the firm of being behind the climate crisis.

One poster on a bus stop in Peckham, southeast London, has a picture of a helicopter attempting to put out a wildfire, with “Climate breakdown?” in large letters next to the Shell logo.

Underneath, it says: “We cause it.”

A spoof Shell advert in Peckham in southeast London (Zoe Tidman)

Shell Must Fall, the campaign group behind the initiative, shared a number of other bus stop posters on social media.

These also accuse hell of causing “climate breakdown”, with one spoof ad showing an image of people wading through a flooded street.

Another had a picture of a landscape on fire, with “Shell: Burning your Future” in big letters.

Shell Must Fall said the latest report by the International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC), considered the world’s leading authority on the climate crisis, warned “we cannot burn more fossil fuels if we want to secure a livable future”.

Its tweet added: “There’s no place for them in tackling the climate crisis #ShellMustFall.”

The IPCC report - published at the start of this month - warned there were less than three years remaining to bring global emissions into decline and avert a “catastrophic” rise in temperatures.

Its scientists said there needed to be a “substantial reduction” in fossil fuel use to limit global warming. Meanwhile Antonio Guterres, the UN secretary-general, said it was “madness” to be investing in new infrastructure relating to fossil fuels at a press conference for the report launch.

Shell is considered part of Big Oil, which includes the leading oil and gas companies in the world. Its website says it sold 64.2 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas last year and produces 3.2 million barrels of oil equivalent every day.

Last month, it emerged Shell directors were being sued for their “failure to properly prepare” the company for net zero in a lawsuit considered to be the first of its kind.

Shell says it has a target to be net-zero emissions by 2050, which means reducing emissions from operations, as well as offsetting and using technology to capture remaining emissions.

The energy giant also claims it is transforming its business by providing more low-carbon energy, such as wind and solar.

A Shell spokesperson told The Independent: “We respect the right of everyone to express their point of view.”

They said the company was planning to invest between £20bn to £25bn in the UK energy system over the next decade, with more than 75 per cent of this “in low and zero-carbon products and services” such as offshore wind and hydrogen.