NationalWorld's environment and sustainability specialist Amber Allott talks about the gargantuan profits hauled in by fossil fuel and energy giants so far this year, our power bills, and the climate crisis.
Image credit: NationalWorld/Adobe Stock/Getty
Image credit: NationalWorld/Adobe Stock/Getty
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00:00 Hello my name is Amber Allitt and I'm National World's Environment and Sustainability Specialist.
00:05 I think that like a lot of people living in the UK I was pretty shocked on Thursday to
00:09 find out just how much British gas owner Centrica had made since Ofgem made the controversial
00:15 move to raise the UK's energy price cap.
00:18 So earnings at Centrica's retail supplier business soared by nearly 900% to £969 million
00:26 in the first six months of the year.
00:29 Not only that but its CEO earned around £4.5 million last year when you factor in money
00:35 from bonuses, money from shares.
00:38 Now this strikes me as it probably does everyone else who doesn't earn millions of pounds a
00:42 year as a grave inequality on two levels.
00:46 First of all every winter millions of Brits are struggling to pay their energy bills and
00:50 keep their homes warm, especially in the midst of the current cost of living crisis.
00:55 But at the same time the use of fossil fuels for our energy is a huge contributor to our
01:00 greenhouse gas emissions and subsequently to climate change.
01:04 Now that is going to affect you and me far more than the people who are profiting millions
01:08 off it.