A lawyer representing communities in the Amazon devastated by an oil spill warned Parliament yesterday that a setback in their compensation fight could spark other environmental disasters.

Juan Pablo Saenz said a ruling by a US judge last week to deny affected people over $9 billion (£5.4bn) in compensation from Chevron would send a dangerous signal.

It was the latest twist in a decades-long struggle sparked by the dumping of billions of gallons of toxic waste into the Amazon by Chevron between 1964 and 1990.