When oil prices shoot up, do you feel it?<\/p>\n\n
At the petrol pump, in taxi fares, in the price of bread and groceries.<\/p>\n\n
Now imagine this: while you\u2019re paying more just to get to work or feed your family, someone else is making billions.<\/p>\n\n
That\u2019s exactly what happens when conflict breaks out.<\/p>\n\n
In March alone, oil prices surged to around $100 a barrel. That spike translated into an estimated $23bn in windfall profits<\/a> for the world\u2019s biggest oil and gas companies during that period. Companies like Shell and BP didn\u2019t earn this because they improved energy access or innovated. They profited because the war in Iran drove prices up. Shell\u2019s net income is expected to rise by $3.7bn to $26.7bn, according to Goldman Sachs, while BP, which is heavily invested in Iraqi oil fields, is expected to grow its net income by $2.8bn to $12.9bn.<\/a> <\/p>\n\n This isn\u2019t market success, it\u2019s crisis profiteering. While ordinary people absorb the shock, fossil fuel giants quietly cash in.<\/p>\n\n For Africa, the impact is immediate and deeply unfair. The continent contributes the least to global emissions, yet we are among the most exposed to oil price shocks. When tensions rise in places like the Strait of Hormuz, fuel prices don\u2019t just increase; they ripple through entire economies. <\/p>\n\n What does that actually mean in real life for ordinary people?<\/p>\n\n Governments are forced into difficult choices: increase fuel subsidies, cut spending elsewhere, or pass costs onto citizens. Either way, people pay the price.<\/p>\n\n At the same time, oil companies continue to push for new projects across Africa, from the Niger Delta to the South African Orange Basin, promising jobs, development, and energy security.<\/p>\n\n But the reality tells a different story. This latest conflict shows that dependence on oil creates vulnerability rather than stability. African economies become tied to global price swings they don\u2019t control, while multinational corporations take the profits.<\/p>\n\n It\u2019s a system where risks are local while the profits are global.<\/p>\n\n This is why calls to tax fossil fuel profits matter, but they need to go beyond short-term fixes.<\/p>\n\n Windfall taxes are temporary, and while taxing excess profits during crises is a step forward, it is not enough. The reality is that companies like Shell and BP have built decades of wealth on a model that externalises environmental and social costs, costs that are now being paid by communities across Africa through extreme weather events, economic instability, and lost livelihoods.<\/p>\n\n That damage is ongoing. So too must accountability. That is the essence of the Polluters Pay principle.<\/p>\n\n What\u2019s needed is a permanent global tax on fossil fuel profits, under frameworks like the United Nations Tax Convention.<\/p>\n\n This would:<\/p>\n\n Because the truth is simple: the harm caused by fossil fuels is continuous, so the response must be as well.<\/p>\n\n The war has exposed something bigger than just rising oil prices. Oil dependency is not just an environmental problem, it\u2019s a geopolitical risk. As long as fossil fuel corporations are allowed to profit from global crises, ordinary people, especially in the Global South, will continue to carry the burden. Africa cannot keep absorbing shocks from a system it did not create.<\/p>\n\n We need lasting solutions, not temporary relief.<\/p>\n\nWhy this hits Africa harder<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n
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The dangerous myth of oil-led development<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n
Why the idea of \u201cPolluters Pay\u201d must go further<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n
A real solution: permanent polluter taxes<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n
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We can\u2019t afford this system anymore<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n
It\u2019s time to act<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n