As inflation spikes again, many of us will be feeling déjà vu.

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We’ve been in this doom loop before – when Russia invaded Ukraine, we saw energy and food costs spiral. Households faced impossible decisions while oil giants made astronomical profits, and the ultra-wealthy cashed in. We shouldn’t let history repeat itself.

This isn’t a series of unpredictable shocks, this is a system failure. The UK is heavily dependent on oil and gas imports, meaning global crises are starkly felt in people’s bills. Household energy debt in the UK more than tripled in five years, despite the Government paying for £44 billion in emergency bills support. Meanwhile, the top 100 oil and gas producers saw profits of $30 million per hour in the first month of the US’s illegal war on Iran.

Supporting households needs to be about more than emergency measures – it’s about reversing this unjust transfer of wealth.

That’s why I’ve launched a petition to end the tax breaks currently given to fossil fuel companies and redirect the money into a jobs guarantee for workers currently in the oil and gas industry, ensuring no one is left behind as we move to a greener society.

But it must go beyond this, and the route forward is eminently achievable: scale up renewables, and tax polluters fairly. And it’s astonishingly affordable – the entire cost of getting to Net Zero will be less than the cost of just one fossil fuel price shock.

And despite what the oil giants say, more North Sea drilling won’t fix anything. UK output is too small to influence global prices, and industry wants further tax breaks to make new projects viable. The government’s own data shows 93 per cent of recoverable oil and gas has already been extracted. Whatever does remain will simply be sold to the highest bidder, doing nothing to bring down bills.

Countries are meeting in Colombia this week to discuss the transition away from fossil fuels, marking a shift from climate pledges to practical action. The UK needs to address the elephant in the room. It should speak up on the need to stop subsidising and start properly taxing fossil fuel giants.

This is a political choice. We can keep paying for fossil fuel crises until there is no money left – or we can make polluters pay and invest in a cheaper, more secure future for all.

Carla Denyer is the Green Party MP for Bristol Central.

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