Amsterdam, Netherlands – Chevron and ExxonMobil today reported combined profits of more than US$26 billion for the second quarter, closing another bumper earnings season for the world's largest oil and gas corporations as the illegal war on Iran drives up oil prices and the cost of living.
The latest huge United States results follow high quarterly earnings from European multinational corporations Shell, TotalEnergies, Equinor and Eni.[1] The announcements land as households face rising energy, transport and food costs. Oil and gas giants are banking billions from the price shocks of another war, while the fossil fuels they sell keep driving climate disasters that communities are paying for with their homes, their harvests and their lives.[2] Late-June heatwaves alone killed more than 10,000 people across Europe, while wildfires in July forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes in countries including Algeria, Canada, France and Spain.
Rebecca Newsom, Global Political Lead at Greenpeace International, said:
"These profits are another reminder that crisis is a feature of the fossil fuel business model, not a bug. The illegal war on Iran has pushed oil prices higher and the world's biggest polluters are cashing in – at the very moment their products are driving the deadly heatwaves and fires devastating communities around the world.
"This is fossilflation – their profits are driving up our bills. Families pay through rising food prices and other mounting costs of climate disasters, while oil and gas corporations profit from the very instability they help create. For as long as wrecking the climate stays this lucrative, the crises will keep coming.
"Governments must respond by permanently increasing taxes on oil and gas profits – not just windfalls – and backing a global polluter profits tax, alongside new rules to end tax dodging and profit shifting under the Global Tax Treaty. These measures could unlock hundreds of billions of dollars to help communities recover and accelerate the shift to renewable energy, while disincentivising further investment in the fossil fuel industry. It's time governments used the tax system to make this destruction unprofitable, and to support a just and equitable global transition away from fossil fuels."
Chevron's second quarter profit of US$12 billion, is a 328 per cent increase from the first quarter, while Exxon's profit of US$14.7 billion, is a 67 per cent increase from the first quarter.
From 3 August, governments meet in New York for the next round of negotiations to agree on a Global Tax Treaty.[3] Greenpeace is calling for new global rules to end tax-dodging and make oil and gas corporations and the super-rich pay for the climate damage they have caused, in order to fund a fair, green and resilient future. A new 20% global tax on oil and gas profits, applied fairly, with tax rates progressively increasing over time, could raise more than US$100 billion a year in its first few years.[4] The revenues from bolder taxes on wealthy polluters must support communities recovering from war and climate disasters, strengthen public services, protect families from rising bills, and finance a just transition to renewable energy that leaves no one behind.
Fifty seven countries committed to advancing an end to coal, oil and gas dependence at the Santa Marta conference in Colombia in April, and 141 countries subsequently backed a just transition away from fossil fuels through a UN General Assembly resolution endorsing the International Court of Justice's Advisory Opinion on Climate Change in May.[5][6] Governments must now turn those commitments into action by ending new fossil fuel expansion, permanently increasing taxes on oil and gas profits, and accelerating investment in renewable energy.
