Windfall tax must change in face of ‘excessive’ oil profits, Alok Sharma says

A section of a BP oil platform in the North Sea. The UK government is licensing new drilling in the area. Photograph: Reuters

The UK’s windfall tax on oil and gas profits must be changed to raise billions more and to stop companies using loopholes to invest in further fossil fuel extraction, the outgoing president of global climate talks has said.

“These are excessive profits, and they have to be treated in the appropriate way when it comes to taxation,” said Alok Sharma, the president of the Cop26 UN climate summit. “We ought to be going further and seeing what more can be done in terms of raising additional finance [from the profits]. So far, at least, the level of money raised is obviously not significant.”