Flux continu

European and US oil and gas majors have made profits of more than a quarter of a trillion dollars since Russia invaded Ukraine, according to a new analysis by Global Witness marking two years since the conflict began. After posting record gains in 2022 off the back of soaring energy prices, the big five fossil fuel companies paid shareholders an unprecedented $111 billion in 2023. In the hottest year ever recorded, this figure is some 158 times what was pledged to vulnerable nations at last year’s COP28 climate summit.

After yet another summer of increased extreme weather events caused by the burning of fossil fuels, some of the world’s richest oil and gas companies are investing in artificial intelligence (AI) to speed up their extraction of new oil and gas.