Tax fossil fuel firms to tackle climate and cost crises
Scottish Greens are calling on the UK Government to impose a generational shift in how it taxes fossil fuel companies to tackle the cost of living and climate crises.
BP has reported a better-than-expected £3.9bn profit for the first quarter this year on top of £23bn it made in the previous 12 months. Shell, who recorded the most profits in its 150 year history last year, are due to report later this week.
Mark Ruskell MSP, climate spokesperson for the Scottish Greens, said: “While shareholders in these companies will be laughing all the way to the bank, it is ordinary people and the environment who are suffering so they can line their pockets.
“We are in the grip of the biggest climate crisis we will ever know, seasonal temperatures all across Europe are smashing records as we enter summer, and we are witnessing horrendous scenes of famine and drought in Africa and storms elsewhere.
“Here in the UK we are not only bracing for whatever the next few months brings weather wise, we are doing so against rising prices, brought about chiefly because of the soaring costs of energy, which are feeding these massive profits.
“Given the extraordinary values involved, the UK Government must change how we tax the fossil fuel companies.
“By imposing a significant, generational shift in those levels, we can not only begin to look at the kind of investments needed in people and planet, but to send a clear message that these firms have to pay a price for such obscene profits made on the back of their climate wrecking activities.
“They should be expanding funding for green technologies instead of threatening to roll back on investment in the face of windfall taxes. They have a chance to lead a Just Transition, they should seize it.”
