Experts from the Make Polluters Pay Coalition have urged governments across the world to back a permanent stronger taxes on fossil fuel profits and support strong United Nations’ tax talks.

The call came amid climate crises, including heatwaves, wildfires and rising living costs across the world.

The coalition, in a statement on Monday, lamented that the world’s biggest oil and gas companies had confirmed another blockbuster quarter of profits despite the global monumental climate disasters.

Citing heatwaves and wildfires in UK, U.S., Spain, France and others, the coalition said emissions from just five fossil fuel corporations, including BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and TotalEnergies, were sufficient to cause around one in four of the heatwaves recorded globally between 2000 and 2023. 

“Those same five companies are now announcing another blockbuster quarter of fossil fuel profits. TotalEnergies has reported adjusted net income of $5.4 billion for the second quarter of 2026, Shell profit hit $9.84bn in the three months to June, more than double compared with the same period last year. Exxon clocked $14.5 billion in profits this quarter; Chevron, $12.1 billion. BP is expected to announce comparable astronomical profits on the 4th of August.

“That’s over USD $40 billion in profits by just 4 large oil companies, which is more than the entire GDP of over 100 countries, reaped in rewards while the rest of the world is left dealing with climate and energy chaos. The price spikes are driven in large part by volatility in oil prices during the war in Iran,” it stated.

David Hillman, a Stamp out Poverty representative, said Big Oil had spent fifty years profiting from pollution while the rest of us paid the price in heatwaves, in wildfires, in energy bills we could barely afford. 

“That’s why we’re bringing a giant oil barrel to the doorstep of Parliament: to make sure politicians can’t look away. Governments have a real chance this month, at the UN tax talks in New York, to finally make the polluters pay. They should take it,” Mr Hillman noted.

Anne Jellema, executive director of 350.org, also stated, “From Bordeaux to Phoenix to Mumbai, families are living through the cost of climate delay, while the companies most responsible bank blockbuster bonanzas. That is not a coincidence; it is a business model. Governments meeting in New York this month have a genuine opportunity to change it.”

The coalition insisted that higher taxes on oil and gas profits would be leveraged to fund global emergency response, recovery and long-term resilience for communities on the frontline of the crisis.