‘Sickening’ BP profits show need to phase out fossil fuels

Climate campaigners have slammed the latest oil company profit announcement as BP revealed £23billion profits after tax in the past 12 months. As with Shell last week, the profits are the largest in the company’s entire history.

Climate scientists and energy experts have been clear that in order to stay within internationally agreed climate limits, there can be no new investment in fossil fuel development. 

A Channel 4 investigation in 2022 found that “BP invested £300m into renewables and ‘low carbon’ in the first half of 2022 — equivalent to just 2.5% of its £12.2bn profits for that time period. By comparison, it invested £3.8bn in new oil and gas projects — more than 10 times its low carbon investments.” 

BP’s CEO Bernard Looney also recently told shareholders that BP would be focusing on maximising profits and narrowing BP’s portfolio of green energy investments in favour of more oil and gas.  

Friends of the Earth Scotland’s oil and gas Campaigner Freya Aitchison said:
 
“The announcement of yet another sickening profit for an oil giant should anger us all. Fossil fuel companies are being allowed to bank billions in profits whilst millions of ordinary people struggle to pay their bills. 

“Bosses and shareholders at these big polluters are being allowed to get even richer by profiteering from one of our most basic needs. The harm caused by the fossil fuel energy system couldn’t be clearer.

“These companies are not serious about climate action or transitioning away from oil and gas, the evidence shows they are spending just a tiny fraction of their profits into truly green projects. In fact, BP is actually scaling down its investments into green energy and planning to be drilling for more oil and gas for decades to come.

“The Scottish Government must seize the opportunity of its Energy Strategy to instead chart a clear path away from oil and gas and towards an energy system that is built on clean, reliable renewables. Ministers must listen to the science which tells us that to meet climate targets in a fair way, fossil fuel extraction needs to be phased out in the next decade.”