Mark Finucane, West London Socialist Party
Despite making over $40 billion profits since the start of 2022, fossil fuel giant BP has announced 8,000 job cuts as part of “cost saving” measures. It plans to cut 4,700 jobs from its permanent staff and 3,000 contractor roles. BP bosses have cited net-zero regulation and the oil and gas windfall tax as reasons for the cuts but, in reality, this is just another display of their greed and a method to increase returns for its investors. Once again, the working class must suffer to increase the profits of the capitalists.
With 2024 being the first year that global temperatures breached the key 1.5°C limit above pre-industrial levels, the need for a rapid transition to clean, renewable energy has never been greater. But the working class and employees of these fossil fuel giants must not be forced to foot the bill. The environmental crisis cannot be used as a scapegoat for the fossil fuel industry to increase profits.
London-based climate activism and research group Platform, and Friends of the Earth Scotland, found in 2023 that over 90% of oil and gas workers would welcome a change to working in green energy, but this needs to come with a guarantee of job security, retraining and no loss of pay.
Fossil fuel companies such as BP have shown that, prioritising short-term profits, they are incapable of moving away from fossil fuels. For every £1 BP spent on low-carbon investments in quarter three of 2023, it invested £11 in fossil fuels and gave shareholders £9. Last year, BP announced it plans to significantly reduce even that meagre investment in renewables for the rest of the decade.
The Socialist Party fights for a transition away from polluting energy production, but this will not and cannot happen with the energy sector left in private hands. Only through nationalisation of the energy industry under democratic public control can we prioritise more than just shareholders’ greed.
Decisions could be made that would benefit the majority rather than a tiny minority, and a democratic plan could facilitate a just transition to renewable energy that we so desperately need.