🔥 Shell profits as the world burns

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Hi John,

Yesterday, Shell announced that it’s made £3.9 billion in profits over the last three months. As extreme heat rips through entire continents, and many of us in the UK worry about our bills, these obscene profits show that corporate power is out of control.(1)

Shell and other companies are driving climate disaster by profiting from burning fossil fuels. But there are real steps that our government can take to reign them in and make a major difference to this emergency.

John, I know you’re disgusted by Shell’s profiteering from climate disaster. Can you sign the petition to make polluters pay for their climate-wrecking activities?

I can sign

The big five oil companies are responsible for over 11% of historic emissions. And they’re not showing any signs of stopping their dangerous activities.

Last month, I told you about how Shell had dropped its target to reduce oil production. This month, we learned that oil giants, including Shell, are planning on reinvesting the record profits they’ve made from the cost-of-living crisis into increasing fossil fuel production.

It’s likely that much of the obscene profits Shell has announced today will be spent on burning more oil and gas. And we know that the people who will suffer most are those with the least resources to cope.

Between 1970 and 2021, almost all of the people who died due to extreme weather events lived in the global south. Some regions experienced damage that cost the value of their entire economy to repair.(2)

During the same period, oil giants have made trillions from burning fossil fuels, while trying to silence scientists who have sought to sound the alarm about their activities.

And it’s not just oil companies that are the problem. It has been revealed this month that corporate shareholders have backtracked on forcing the oil companies they have investments in to cut carbon emissions.(3)

It’s easy to see the pattern here. Companies go public with commitments to make them look like they’re addressing climate change, then they start quietly backtracking so that they can continue profiting from endangering us all.

And our own government is joining in with the greenwash – planning to approve new oil and gas extraction despite knowing it will blow our carbon budget out the water.

But we won’t let that go without a fight.

The climate emergency is being caused by corporate power and government inaction. We know huge companies like Shell won’t sacrifice their profits on their own.

But we can demand that our government steps up and takes bold action. The UK already signed up last year to a UN fund to pay for climate loss and damage in the global south. As we head towards the next crucial UN climate summit this autumn, we’re trying to gather every possible name on our petition to get our government to make polluters pay. Can you add yours today?

Add my name

Together, we can pressure our government to step in to make polluters pay, and dismantle their climate-wrecking business models. This could make a huge impact on the climate crisis, and offer hope to people on the front line of climate impacts around the world.

Thank you
Izzie McIntosh
Climate campaigner at Global Justice Now

Notes
1. Shell’s ‘obscene’ $5bn profits reignite outrage amid climate crisis, Guardian, 27 July 2023
2. Global South Saw More Than 90% of All Extreme Weather Deaths in Last 51 Years: UN Agency, Common Dreams, 22 May 2023
3. UK investors backtrack on support for climate resolution at oil firms’ AGMs, Guardian, 17 July 2023

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