The big energy companies have seen their profits multiply since the start of the war in Iran, in contrast to the countries’ cuts in development aid, on the eve of the start of the G7 summit in Évian. They have had up to 300 million daily profits since last February 28.
“The wealth of energy ‘billionaires’ increased by $9.8 trillion amid the fifth global economic crisis recorded since 2020,” while “the G7 countries cut aid to the world’s poorest countries by $48 billion between 2024 and 2026, the organization denounced in a statement.
According to the report, published on the occasion of the opening of the G7 summit, these 41 ‘billionaires’, who come from the seven most developed countries, have increased their wealth by 23.5 billion dollars since the beginning of the “illicit war” of the United States and Israel against Iran at the end of last February.
The profits of the six main oil and gas corporations are going to skyrocket 80% above pre-war forecasts, an additional 68 billion dollars, which will put them at 152 billion.
Profits that will also affect other sectors, such as the three largest fertilizer corporations, which will increase their profits by 23% compared to pre-war estimates.
The executive director of Oxfam International, Amitabh Behar, denounced the contrast between these benefits and the consequences, in terms of human lives and economic costs, of the conflict, a “brutal system that redistributes wealth upwards.”
“From workers to shareholders, from the poorest to the richest, from those with less power to those who already have too much. As families skip meals and governments cut vital humanitarian aid, we are witnessing a grotesque bonanza for billionaires,” he said.
Oxfam denounced, at the same time, the response that developed countries are giving to this new crisis, different from that which followed the covid pandemic or the Russian invasion of Ukraine, when debt payments to the most developed countries were suspended and the IMF granted emergency loans.
“Immense influence” in action
He appealed to France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada and Japan to “use their immense financial and diplomatic influence that they are choosing not to exercise” in the face of Washington’s “destructive actions.”
“Between 2024 and 2025, the G7 adopted the largest reduction in official development aid in its history, cutting aid to the world’s poorest countries by $48 billion,” said the organization, which considered the human cost of these policies “catastrophic.”
Oxfam accused the French G7 presidency of making concessions to the United States to secure the assistance of its president, Donald Trump, such as “excluding from debates issues such as climate breakdown, growing inequality and the need for coordinated responses to overlapping global crises” or terms such as ‘gender’ or ‘climate’.
“Instead of defending collective governance, French President Emmanuel Macron and his counterparts are facilitating its destruction. This will have consequences measured in human lives,” Behar said.
