▪ While the fossil fuel sector’s contribution to climate change is well known, it is important to

1How the Finance Flows: The banks fuelling the climate crisis | ActionAid International 2 Introduction On the first day of COP27 in 2022, Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, asked governments to tax the windfall profits of fossil fuel companies and redirect that money to those in need and. [...] Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the resulting hikes in energy product prices, as well as the increase in interest rates in response to growing inflation in many countries, are often mentioned as key respective drivers of energy and financial companies’ record profits in recent years.7 The contrast between the astounding corporate profits and the hardships generated by these eve. [...] The financial sector companies recorded a smaller drop in profits during the first year of the pandemic, with a rapid recovery in the following year, when the combined profits of the companies covered by our research reached a record level to date. [...] (It should be noted that the relatively low increase in profits from the base years is due to the fact that in 2020/21 the combined profits for the companies reached a record level). [...] The continued growth of profits in most sectors, and the differences in how these profits are affected by external events and factors, raise the question of the utility and viability of permanent excess profits taxes – a question explored in the next section.