Energy bills rise as firms make record profits
The cost of living crisis has hit households across the country with many families unable to afford their energy bills this winter.
Businesses up and down the country are closing down and across the country people are struggling to make ends meet.
However, one sector is posting record breaking profits ... again! The energy giants, who produce oil and gas, are quite literally wallowing in cash while literally millions are struggling to heat their homes or put food on the table.
Earlier this month, BP reported record profits, biggest in its 114 year history. Their profits more than doubled to £23 billion last year. Yes, you read that right, more than doubled!
But it’s not just BP. Shell reported record profits, again biggest in its 115 year history of £32.2 billion.
US energy companies Chevron and Exxon Mobil and France’s Total Energies are all also reporting enormous profits too. In fact, between the top five, they’re making £5,000 a second in profit.
Yet despite colossal profit margins, calls for higher taxation and windfall taxes are ignored, all while shareholders make huge amounts of money.
The issue with shareholders reaping such excessive profits is the growing harm caused by climate change. The majority of global warming is caused by burning oil and gas. One Home's recent project highlighting communities at risk from coastal erosion by 2100 is just one example of the consequence of sea level rise and bigger storms, both directly caused by climate change.
Currently there’s no carbon tax so the bill for damage due to extreme weather events, including flooding, is paid for by us through insurance and taxation. Meanwhile, the polluters pay nothing.
Oil and gas companies have a huge capacity to be pivotal in the transition to net zero with their money and expertise. Yet despite the glossy green ads, Shell only invested 6.3 percent of profits into renewable energy in the first half of this year, three times less than it invested in new oil and gas. BP invested just £300m into renewable energy and low carbon schemes in the first half of 2022. That’s just 2.5 per cent of its huge profit margin and the low-carbon schemes are often not as green as you'd imagine.
BP did, however, find a massive £3.8 billion to invest in new oil and gas projects, that’s more than ten times the amount invested in low carbon projects. All these figures make for hugely depressing reading.
Despite having billions of pounds spare, the energy giants aren’t taking their responsibility to limit climate change and invest in clean, renewable energy seriously. We’re at a clear fork in the road right now. The faster we reach net zero emissions, the better off we all are.