BP, Eni, Repsol, Shell, and TotalEnergies have paid back just 5% of the €13 trillion in societal and environmental debt.
The five oil companies were responsible for an estimated €9 trillion in unpaid health costs from air pollution.Unpaid damage would be far higher when the costs of deforestation, human rights and indigenous population destruction are taken into account. The oil majors have paid back a meagre 5% of the €13 trillion in societal damage through corporate taxes. In comparison, fuel taxes that are paid for by drivers at the pumps were in some cases over three times larger than the corporate tax paid by the five companies. Consumers have therefore been paying for external costs like health and pollution, while the oil majors have lined their pockets.
For years Big Oil has sought to control the conversation on climate change legislation with Europe’s oil majors spending almost €4 billion worldwide in lobbying and an additional €3 billion in advertisements since 1993, the study shows.“This is not just about fairness. Big Oil is increasingly trying to dictate the pace of climate change mitigation. They seek to portray themselves as key actors in the transition by spending huge sums of money on lobbying and advertisements.
Roflmao. Yet who burned all that fossil fuel. All of mankind did and all of mankind benefited from it also.