As London Climate Action Week unfolded against the backdrop of one of the UK’s most extreme heatwaves, journalists, frontline voices and campaigners gathered for a landmark Make Polluters Pay event. It highlighted the growing political, legal and public momentum to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for climate damage.
Hosted by 350.org, Stamp out Poverty, and chaired by Megan Rowling of Climate Home News, the Make Polluters Pay event brought together speakers from across movements and geographies to examine how narratives are shifting, and how accountability for Big Oil is moving from the margins to the mainstream.
As climate disasters intensify and energy prices remain volatile, public anger at fossil fuel profiteering is rising. The discussion highlighted how windfall taxes, closing tax loopholes, and a wave of climate litigation are beginning to challenge the power of oil, gas and coal companies with billions already at stake.
350.org’s recent Out of Pocket report puts the scale of the imbalance in stark terms. Some $12tn a year flows to the fossil fuel industry in subsidies, tax breaks and unpaid climate damages. That’s nearly 100 times the world’s total climate finance.