Shell boss backs windfall tax

Shell’s outgoing chief executive Ben van Beurden has said governments may need to tax energy firms more to help the poor.

He told the Energy Intelligence Forum: “One way or another there needs to be government intervention. Protecting the poorest, that probably may then mean that governments need to tax people in this room to pay for it.

“I think we just have to accept as a society – it can be done smartly and not so smartly. There is a discussion to be had about it but I think it’s inevitable.”

Georgia Whitaker, Greenpeace UK energy campaigner, said: “When the head of BP has likened his company to a cash machine, and the boss of Shell is actually backing a windfall tax, it makes you wonder what it’s going to take for the government to make a withdrawal?

“A windfall tax on fossil fuel companies’ billions of excess profits could pay for the energy bill freeze, as well as funding vital home energy upgrades – addressing the cost of living crisis and the climate crisis in one go.

“This money has been up for grabs all year and other countries have already introduced windfall taxes. But all our government has done is bring in sticking plaster solutions that fail to tackle the root causes of fuel poverty, energy insecurity and the climate crisis.”