1 August 2024, London – As Shell today reports Q2 profits of £5 billion ($6.3 billion), new Global Witness analysis reveals the firm has paid out £18 billion ($23 billion) to shareholders since June 2023 – the month which marked the start of the world’s first year-long breach of the key 1.5C degree warming limit.
In a week that saw BP reporting Q2 profits of £2.2 billion ($2.8 billion), analysis by Global Witness shows that together Shell and BP’s Q2 profits could pay for almost a tenth of the $100 billon that developing countries have called for by 2030 to cover the costs of the loss and damage caused by climate breakdown.
Alice Harrison, Head of Fossil Fuel Campaigns at Global Witness, said:
“As people flee wildfires in Canada, floods in Taiwan, and rebuild in the wake of Storm Beryl, Shell is doubling down on fossil fuels, u-turning on renewables and profiting to the tune of billions from an intensifying climate crisis.
"We can’t keep letting polluters off the hook. Governments should be holding fossil fuel majors to account for the crisis they created and forcing them to pay for the damage they are inflicting on millions of families around the world.”