Profits for Shell have reached new heights, as the energy giant has reported $39.9 billion (£32.2bn) in adjusted earnings for 2022.
This marked Shell’s highest profits in 115 of history and was mainly driven by the major’s integrated gas division which capitalised on the volatile global gas prices.
The profits were also double last year’s total.
Shell Chief Executive Officer Wael Sawan said: “The world requires a secure supply of affordable energy. It also needs this energy to be increasingly low carbon as we transition to a net zero future. Shell’s strategy is the right one for this balanced energy transition.
“At the same time, we are making progress on our climate targets. By the end of 2022, we were more than halfway through our target reduction of 50% for Scope 1 and 2 emissions. We also continue to differentiate our portfolio.”
Responding to Shell’s profits, Senior Climate Justice Campaigner for Greenpeace UK Elena Polisano, said: “Shell is profiteering from climate destruction and immense human suffering.
“While Shell counts their record-breaking billions, people across the globe count the damage from the record-breaking droughts, heatwaves and floods this oil giant is fueling. This is the stark reality of climate injustice, and we must end it.”
Reacting to the news, Sana Yusuf, Climate Campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: “That Shell’s annual profits more than doubled last year, while millions of people have been facing the impossible choice between putting food on the table and heating their homes, is simply staggering.
“People can see the injustice of paying eye-watering energy costs while big oil and gas firms rake in billions. Fairly taxing their excess profits could help to fund a nationwide programme of insulation and a renewable energy drive, which would lower bills, keep homes warmer and reduce harmful carbon emissions.”
Tessa Khan, Executive Director of Uplift, said: “This feels like we’re being mugged now. These are profits that Shell is taking from us in higher energy and fuel bills, including from the many millions of households living in fuel poverty, pensioners and families with children among them, and from businesses up and down the country that are struggling to survive. It is grossly unfair.”
