UN Secretary-General calls on governments to tax profits of oil and gas companies

« It is immoral that oil and gas companies are making record profits from this energy crisis, on the backs of the poorest people and communities, at a massive cost to the climate declared Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, during a press conference on the occasion of the publication of the third UN report on the global consequences of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

Rising oil and gas prices led energy companies such as ‘TotalEnergies’, ‘Shell’, ‘Exxon’, ‘Chevron’ and ‘BP’ to make huge profits in the second quarter.

Economic and political troubles

According to António Guterres, several countries around the world are already witnessing signs of a wave of economic, social and political unrest from which no country will be immune.

The Secretary-General has warned that by the end of the year, 345 million people will be “acutely food insecure” or “at risk of food insecurity” in 82 countries, an increase of 47 million people due to the impact of the Ukrainian crisis.

Guterres warned that “many developing countries are drowning in debt, without access to finance, struggling to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, and might tip over the edge”, calling on governments to take action, that of taxing excessive profits and using the money to support “the most vulnerable in these difficult times”.

Without calling into question the commitments to limit global warming, and in order to deal with this crisis, the UN calls on governments to take measures to reduce energy demand (reduce heating and air conditioning, reduce air transport, renovate buildings…) and accelerate the development of renewable energies.