Wednesday 8 February 2023

bp reduces climate targets after record profits

After seeing record profits of more than £23 billion in 2022, oil giant bp has decided to scale back its climate promises.

Originally, the firm had made an aim for a 35-40% cut in emissions by 2030, however this has now been altered to between 20 and 30%.

The reason cited was the company needed to continue its investment in oil and gas for current energy demands.

Energy companies saw prices jump with the Ukraine War and Shell just recently also revealed record profits for the year just gone of £33 billion.

In response to such high profits, whilst the public were forced to pay a premium on their bills, the government introduced the Energy Profits Levy (EPL), which has recently seen an increase to a 35% tax on the profits being made by oil and gas companies specifically.

Decommissioning oil rigs and platforms can see the amount of tax heaved onto the companies reduced.

bp said its UK arm only represents 10% of its global profits and revealed it will pay £1.8 billion in tax for 2022, with an additional £578 million from the EPL.

Chief Executive Bernard Looney said: “Over the last three years all the profit we’ve made in the North Sea we’ve either paid it all away in tax or reinvested it into Britain. Our role is to invest, our role is to pay our taxes and our role is to return our value to our shareholders who happen to be millions of people, not faceless institutions.”