‘Sickening’ Shell profits underline urgent need for shift to renewables
The sickening scale of oil and gas company profits underlines the urgent need to shift to renewables, say the Scottish Greens.
This comes as Shell has announced 2022 profits of $40 billion, reportedly a 115 year record.
The Scottish Greens energy and environment spokesperson, Mark Ruskell MSP said:
“Many will be sickened and angry by the obscene level of profits reported by Shell and the other oil and gas giants, who have enriched themselves at the cost of our planet.
"There can be no justification for a system that allows this kind of profiteering, especially when so many are suffering. It is a sign of how broken things add and why they need to change.
"It underlines exactly why we need to break the link between fossil fuel prices and bills, and support the many households and families who have been plunged into fuel poverty over the last 12 months.
“With the climate emergency worsening, we don’t have time to waste. Our world is on fire. A windfall tax full of loopholes is not enough. We need action from every government and a generation-defining investment in renewables.
“Renewable energy is the cheapest and cleanest energy available. If we are to build a cleaner, greener and better future then that is what we need to be investing in. We must move on from oil and gas and finally start leaving it in the ground.
“Yet, at the same time as we are taking important steps here in Scotland, we are being held back by a Tory government that is more interested in the bumper profits of its friends in the fossil fuel industry than it is with our environment.”
Mr Ruskell added:
“Whether it is the oil and gas industry in Aberdeen, or the Mossmorran processing plant in Fife, we need an urgent and just transition for our communities and workers. Not just here in Scotland, but around the world.”