Obscene BP profits show need to ‘chart clear path’ away from fossil fuels

Climate campaigners have reacted to the announcement that oil giant BP has made £7.1billion ($8.2 billion) in profits in just the past three months of 2022.

Campaigners say that the forthcoming Energy Strategy is a chance for the Scottish Government to ‘chart a clear path’ away from the fossil fuel giants like BP who are harming people and the planet to instead create an energy system that runs on renewable energy.

The UN warned last week that the world was on course for a catastrophic 2.8C of climate warming by the end of this century. They demanded that emissions should fall 45% by 2030 if we are to stay within agreed climate limits.

Last week Shell declared profits of £8.2 billion and Equinor £21 billion, both for the third quarter of 2022.

Friends of the Earth Scotland’s Oil and Gas campaigner Freya Aitchison said:

“The announcement of yet another obscene profit for a climate-wrecking oil firm highlights the scale of the pain that these companies are inflicting on the public. While fossil fuel companies are being allowed to make record breaking profits, households are facing astronomical energy bills and millions are being pushed into fuel poverty.”

“Bosses and shareholders at these big polluters are being allowed to get even richer by exploiting one of our most basic needs. BP is also worsening climate breakdown and extreme weather by continuing to invest and lock us into new oil and gas projects for decades to come.

“The Scottish Government must use the opportunity of its forthcoming Energy Strategy to chart a clear path away from fossil fuels and towards an energy system that is built on clean, reliable renewables. They 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.”

ENDS