UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres accused oil and gas companies of making excessive profits because of the energy crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine and called it immoral. Guterres, releasing a UN report on the consequences of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, urged governments to tax the companies' earnings.
It is unmoral for oil and gas companies to make record profits from this energy crisis on the backs of the poorest people and communities and a massive cost to the climate, the UN chief told reporters.
Guterres said that governments should use the funds to support the most vulnerable people through the difficult times and to tax these excessive profits.
He said that people everywhere should send a clear message to the fossil fuel industry and their financiers that this grotesque greed is punishing the poorest and most vulnerable people while destroying our only common home, the planet.
Guterres said the combined profits of the largest energy companies were nearly $100 billion in the first quarter of the year.
With the rise in oil and gas prices, BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron and Shell also reported huge profits in the second quarter.
Guterres said that many developing countries are drowning in debt, without access to finance, and struggling to recover from the COVID-19 epidemic and could go over the brink. He said that there were warnings of a wave of economic, social and political upheaval that would leave no country untouched.