Business
Profits vs damages
Shell’s £13.6 billion annual profits could cover UK’s £2.8bn bill for extreme weather damages almost five times over, analysis shows.
8 February 2026
Main image: Fossil Free London
Today (30 July), Greenpeace activists deployed an electric advertising van depicting images of global climate chaos to coincide with Shell’s colossal second-quarter earnings, which were announced earlier this morning.
The stunt highlights what the organisation described as the ‘obscene’ profits being made by one of the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies while communities across the globe suffer the escalating impacts of climate change.
Shell today reported almost $10 billion ($9.84 billion or £7.4 billion) in profit for the second quarter of 2026 alone.
Shell made the equivalent of an average UK worker’s annual salary in profit every 37 seconds.
An average UK worker would need to work for around 210,000 years – or 5,300 full working lifetimes – to earn what Shell made in just three months.
Shell’s Q2 profits alone could have funded around 4.7 GW of new onshore wind capacity – enough to generate electricity for around 5.8 million UK homes.
The fossil fuel giant’s Q2 earnings could cover the annual energy bills of nearly 4.5 million UK households – more than every household in London, based on the current Ofgem price cap of £1,663 a year for a typical direct debit household.
Someone earning over £9,900 every day since the birth of Jesus still wouldn’t have earned as much as Shell made in profit in the last three months alone.
‘We’re running out of words to describe the obscenity of these numbers. As these figures land, Europe is engulfed by apocalyptic wildfires, communities across Asia are reeling from devastating floods and the UK battles through drought and yet more dangerous heat. These aren’t anomalies; they’re the defining story of the fossil fuel age: Shell takes the profits, and the rest of us pick up the catastrophic bill.
‘There is nothing to celebrate about a business model that generates billions for shareholders while families lose their homes, farmers’ crops fail, public services buckle and future generations inherit an increasingly unstable climate. Let’s be clear: these profits are built on a business model that is upending lives across the world.’
RUDY SCHULKIND
Greenpeace political campaigner
The protest comes as the Northern Hemisphere experiences another summer of destructive climate extremes. Across Europe, North Africa and beyond, communities have endured deadly heatwaves, catastrophic wildfires, prolonged drought and devastating floods.
In the UK, record-breaking temperatures this summer are estimated to have contributed to around 2,700 excess deaths, while prolonged dry conditions have left half of England officially in ‘exceptionally serious’ drought.
Since mid-July, wildfires have swept across France, Spain and Portugal, forcing more than 300,000 people to evacuate.
Yesterday, campaigners from Fossil Free London dressed as firefighters while others poured a black liquid resembling oil over their heads during a protest outside Shell’s global headquarters.
Behind them placards read: ‘Shell Fuels Wildfires’, ‘Oil Fuels Wildfires’ and ‘Stop Pouring Oil on the Flames’.
‘Fire needs fuel. And as we witness fires rage across Scotland, France and Spain, we all know those red and yellow flames are turbocharged by Shell’s oil. For decades Shell covered up the science and continued to drill for the oil that makes wildfires more intense, last longer, and burn further. However the first ember hit the undergrowth in each place, it is Shell, and corporations like it, who set the tinder in place.
‘And as we witness one of the biggest evacuation efforts on the continent since World War Two, the heavy weight in our heart is the knowledge there’s so much more to come. Stop pouring Shell’s oil onto this house, torn down by fire. People need to stop the harm and rebuild. Andy Burnham and Miatta Fahnbulleh need to make clear now that protecting people from wildfires, drought, crop failures and heatwaves means stopping new oil. It means they must stop Rosebank.’
ROBIN WELLS
Spokesperson for Fossil Free London
Scientists have concluded that the extreme temperatures experienced across the UK and Europe this summer would have been virtually impossible without human-caused climate change driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels.
Despite this, the oil and gas industry continues to lobby the Burnham government to approve new North Sea oil and gas developments, including the controversial Rosebank and Jackdaw fields.
‘Andy Burnham’s Labour government has a choice. It can continue shielding the extraordinary profits of oil and gas giants, or it can make polluters pay by strengthening oil and gas taxation and using the revenue to help households with the cost of living, strengthen our resilience against extreme weather, and supercharge the transition to clean, affordable energy. A government that claims to be on the side of working people cannot credibly do both.’
RUDY SCHULKIND
Greenpeace political campaigner
Shell’s £13.6 billion annual profits could cover UK’s £2.8bn bill for extreme weather damages almost five times over, analysis shows.
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