BP and Shell’s profits over the last year larger than combined GDP of the five most climate vulnerable countries 
The Shell logo on a petrol station illuminated at night

BP and Shell’s profits over the last year larger than combined GDP of the five most climate vulnerable countries 

Date: 31 October 2024
Campaigns: Climate

As COP approaches, campaigners demand fossil fuel profits be used to fund loss and damage payments to climate vulnerable regions

BP and Shell’s combined profits between 1 October 2023 – 30 September 2024 exceed the combined GDP of the five most climate vulnerable countries, new analysis from NGO Global Justice Now has found.

The combined total of Shell and BP’s profits over this period amount to £30 billion. In contrast, the combined total GDPs of Chad, the Solomon Islands, Niger, Micronesia, and Guinea-Bissau amount to £26 billion.

Earlier this year, a report launched by a group of the world’s most senior climate experts stated that the world “has entered a critical and unpredictable new phase of the climate crisis”. Looking at 35 of the Earth’s vital signs across 2023, the experts highlighted that the record burning of fossil fuels has driven the highest ever recorded temperatures of Earth’s surface and oceans.

It is countries in the global south who have contributed the least to the ongoing climate crisis that are facing the worst of its impacts, leading campaigners to raise calls around justice and equity in the global response to the climate crisis.

As COP29 approaches, the UK is coming under increased pressure from experts and campaigners to take firm action on climate finance as it has been revealed that poor countries’ debt payments are equivalent to twice the amount they receive in climate finance.

The UK government has committed to delivering on the previous government’s promise to deliver £11.6 billion in climate finance between 2021 and 2026. However, campaigners argue that far more can and must be raised, and that this can be funded through substantial taxes on oil and gas companies’ profits.

Commenting, Izzie McIntosh, climate campaigner at Global Justice Now said: 

Once again fossil fuel giants’ profits have outstripped the economies of countries facing the most devastating impacts of fossil-fuelled climate change. It is hard to find a starker display of the inequity at the core of the fossil fuel economy. Shell and BP’s egregious profits are made possible by the exploitation of some of the world’s most climate vulnerable regions. That climate-wrecking corporations welcome billions of pounds in profit while these countries are drained of wealth and resource is by design.

“We cannot accept this – and we don’t have to. The UK government must prove it is serious about standing up to these shameless corporations as we approach COP29. Providing adequate climate finance – and taxing mega-corporations to fund this – is a clear and obvious step that must be taken.”

Notes 

  1. Global Justice Now is a UK-based campaigning organisation part of a global movement to challenge the powerful and create a more just and equal world. We mobilise people in the UK for change, and act in solidarity with those fighting injustice, particularly in the global south.
  2. Data for BP and Shell profits sourced via companies’ quarterly reports.
  3. GDP figures sourced via World Bank, last estimated in 2023.
  4. The ND-GAIN Vulnerability ranking was used to select the five most climate vulnerable countries.
  5. Data and calculations available on request.