Cop27: crucial climate talks more fragile than ever after year of turmoil

Protesters stand around a ‘Drop BP’ banner at the British Museum this year. Environmental experts say bumper profits for oil and gas companies underscore what a disastrous year it has been for the global climate. Composite: Guardian Design/Getty Images

For oil and gas companies this has been the best year ever. The world’s five biggest alone have made a combined profit of $170bn so far in 2022, a figure likely to be just the tip of the iceberg – most producers are nationally owned, and not required to come clean on their profits. “We are getting more cash than we know what to do with,” as one senior executive from BP admitted, before the companies zipped up their communications in the face of public fury.

Party time for fossil fuels is not what climate experts had been hoping for. If the world is to get to grips with the climate emergency, oil and gas must be urgently phased out. Instead, they are becoming one of the most attractive investments in the global market.