BP WAS accused yesterday of putting profit before people after announcing £2.7 billion profits during the third quarter and investing £2bn into non-renewable energy.

The Institute for Public Policy (IPPR) said the oil and gas giant has now invested nine times more into fossil fuels than into renewable energy over the past two years.

Researcher at the think tank Joseph Evans said: “BP is prioritising profit before people and the planet.

“At a time when energy companies should be urgently responding to climate change by moving their investments away from fossil fuels, BP has doubled down on its oil and gas business to reap enormous profits and enrich their shareholders with more than a billion in buybacks.

“Since the energy price shock started two years ago, BP has invested nine times as much into fossil fuels as renewables.

“It’s clear that oil and gas companies are prioritising their shareholders at the expense of the transition to clean energy, so the UK government must now take the reins by investing in renewables.” 

BP’s latest results are the first to be released after the company’s former chief executive Bernard Looney resigned following a review of his personal relationships with colleagues.

While its profits between July and September were lower than predictions, its earnings were up from £2.1bn in the previous quarter.

Greenpeace UK senior climate adviser Charlie Kronick said: “With massive storms pummeling both sides of the Atlantic, BP continues to post billions in profit while ordinary people pick up the tab for climate change.

“But just when strong government action is needed to curb fossil fuel industry profiteering, Rishi Sunak is hurtling in the wrong direction, threatening policies which will cement our dependence on fossil fuels and intensify the climate and cost-of-living crises.

“Big Oil has played an outsized role in driving climate change. With the UK government missing in action, at the Cop talks next month, world leaders must force BP and the rest of the industry to stop drilling and start paying for the damage they are causing to the planet.”

Interim chief executive Murray Auchincloss said the company expected to grow earnings through this decade.

Dorothy Guerrero, head of policy and advocacy at Global Justice Now, said: "Every quarter like clockwork come the headlines detailing the billions in profits from oil and gas companies, money so massive in scale it’s hard to even comprehend.

"These figures are in part a reflection of our government’s staggering ineptitude and failure to meaningfully take action on the climate crisis - leaving ordinary people in the UK and communities in the Global South most affected by climate catastrophe footing the bill as our own rise higher."

“Just this week we’ve seen BP handed yet more oil and gas exploration licences after our government gave the green light to fresh drilling in the North Sea.

"How many more climate catastrophes do we need to see before the UK government finally makes polluters pay the loss and damage they owe?”

Joanna Warrington, an organiser with Fossil Free London said: “We are living through an unfounded crisis of inequality, where energy bills and our cost of living have spiralled, to feed the profits of fossil fuel giants like BP.

“And as they continue to rake in more dirty money, they use it to fund further climate breakdown as their investments in oil and gas increase - all to line their shareholders' pockets.”