A man is suing BP over his son’s death. Can he win?
And they're winning.
From eleven-year-old activists to rural farmers, ordinary people around the world are taking on oil giants – and winning.
A case filed by an Iraqi man is the latest in a string of environmental lawsuits shaking up the oil and gas industry.
Hussein Julood is taking on UK oil giant BP over the death of his son, Ali.
Hussein claims the burning off of gas at a BP oil field emitted harmful pollutants that caused his son’s leukaemia.
But why are so many turning to environmental lawsuits, and do they really have the power to make a change?
Why is an Iraqi man suing BP?
Hussein Julood is taking legal action against BP following the death of his son, Ali, who died at the age of 21 in April last year.
When he was first diagnosed at the age of 15, Ali dropped out of school.
The family were desperate to find a way to pay for his medical treatment. They sold their furniture and relied on donations from their community.
After two years of treatment, Ali was given the all-clear. He set up a mobile phone shop and started making video diaries of his daily life.
In one, he films a motorbike journey with his five-year-old nephew, Abyas. They ride past the local primary school, which is engulfed in black smoke – a norm for the village.
However, despite the treatment, Ali’s cancer returned.
In his last Instagram post before his death, Ali asked oil companies to stop gas flaring to ‘save the youth of the country from kidney failure and cancer’.
His father alleges that ‘gas flaring’ at the Rumaila oil field in Iraq, which is run by BP, caused his son’s illness.
What is gas flaring?
Natural gas is released when extractors drill for oil. Oil companies burn off this gas to dispose of it quickly and easily. This process is called gas flaring.
Sometimes gas flaring is needed for safety reasons. It helps the operators to de-pressurise their equipment and avoid explosions.
However, in other situations, it’s not necessary. Many operators flare gas because it is cheaper than building facilities to trap and store it.
Gas flaring is responsible for around 350 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions annually.
It also releases air pollutants like carbon monoxide and sulphur dioxide.
The World Bank has called for energy companies to stop almost all gas flaring by 2030.
This is believed to be the first time that an individual has started legal action against a major oil firm over its flaring practices.
Julood is seeking compensation for the cost of his son’s medical treatment.
Hussein told BBC News: ‘I am just hoping for those who hear my voice, from BP, to consider my situation. I am not representing myself alone, I am also representing those poor people living here and suffering from pollution.’
The Rumaila oil field has the highest documented levels of flaring in the world.
High-levels of cancer-causing pollutants such as benzene were found in the family’s village during a BBC investigation in 2022.
The Rumaila oil field is owned by the Iraqi government, but BP is the lead contractor. It runs the site with PetroChina in a consortium called Rumaila Operating Organisation.
The case is being brought before the UK courts because BP is headquartered in the UK.
The oil field emitted 3.7 million tons of CO2 from flaring emissions in 2021 – the equivalent of 2 million cars annually.
Wessen Jazrawi, partner at Hausfeld & Co, which is representing Mr Julood, told the BBC that the case set an important example.
He said: ‘Such companies have generally been able to carry out harmful environmental practices with impunity, particularly where these occur in the Global South.’
BP said ‘we understand the concerns’ and are supporting change.
Last year, Rumaila Operating Organisation said it was funding support for community health initiatives. However, Hussein called the pledges ‘fake promises’.
Mr Julood told BBC News: ‘There is no improvement. The environment is polluted in a way you cannot breathe.’
The health impacts of the oil and gas industry
Numerous studies have linked oil and gas facilities with an increased risk of health conditions.
In Los Angeles, residents in the Wilmington community have some of the highest rates of asthma and cancer in California. The neighbourhood is surrounded by six oil refineries.
More than 2 million people in California live less than a kilometre away from an operational oil and gas well.
One study found that pollutants from oil and gas production in the US contributed to 7,500 excess deaths, 410,000 asthma attacks, and 2,200 new cases of childhood asthma across the country in 2016.
Pollutants emitted by the oil and gas industry can also have an impact on unborn children.
One study found that children born to mothers living near oil and gas developments are up to 70% more likely to be born with congenital heart defects compared to children born to mothers living away from such activity.
Cancer is also a risk.
Researchers found that workers and residents living near oil facilities had an increased risk of developing several different types of cancer, including prostate cancer, multiple myeloma and childhood leukaemia.
Who else is taking polluters to court?
In September 2020, six young people from Portugal filed a case at the European Court of Human Rights. They demanded that the EU, along with other European nations like the UK and Norway, make greater cuts to carbon dioxide emissions.
The claimants are aged between 11 and 24.
Gearóid Ó Cuinn, director of Global Legal Action Network, told CNN: ‘This is truly a David and Goliath case, that’s unprecedented in its scale (and) its potential impacts.’
The group decided to file the claim in response to the deadly wildfires that swept Portugal in 2017.
However, the case was rejected by the court.
Elsewhere, though, environmental groups have successfully taken their cases to court. In 2021, a group of Nigerian farmers and their communities won €15 million in compensation from Shell, following a 15-year lawsuit.
And last year, a group of teenagers from Montana in the US won a climate lawsuit against the state.
A district court judge ruled that it was the government’s constitutional duty to protect people from climate change.
The win sparked similar court cases across the US.
In December, 18 kids from California launched a case against the US Environmental Protection Agency, alleging that it ‘intentionally’ allows harmful emissions from vehicles and power plants.
Just last Friday, a group of activists in the US filed a lawsuit against the state of Maine arguing that the state has failed to reduce its emissions.
Cole Cochrane, policy director of Maine Youth Action, said: ‘Our generation will inherit a state overwhelmed by carbon emissions and climate change – with damage to the environment, to marine life, and to our own health – if we can’t start making these changes now.’