G7 energy billionaires pocket $300 million a day since start of unlawful US and Israel war against Iran

• Billionaire wealth has so far surged by nearly $10 trillion amid the fifth global economic crisis since 2020.
• G7 countries slashed aid to the world’s poorest countries by $48 billion between 2024 and 2025 —a sum G7 billionaires accumulated in just nine days.
• Oxfam calls on the “G6" to stop using US intransigence as an excuse for inaction, urging taxes on excessive profits and the super-rich, debt suspension, more aid, and new Special Drawing Rights.

41 G7 energy billionaires have increased their wealth by $23.5 billion since the unlawful US and Israel war against Iran began, reveals new Oxfam analysis published ahead of the G7 summit in Evian, France. This is equivalent to about $1,000 in the time it takes to blink. Billionaires globally have gained $9.8 trillion since 2020.

Soaring energy and food prices are devastating households worldwide, particularly across low- and middle-income countries already battered by years of economic turmoil, debt crises, and climate shocks.

At the same time, six oil majors’ profits are projected to skyrocket by 80 percent ($68 billion) over pre-war forecasts. Their profits are on track to hit $152 billion in 2026, equivalent to $416 million a day. This windfall extends to other industries: three of the world’s top fertilizer corporations are expected to see profits jump by 23 percent ($928 million) compared to pre-war estimates. Overall, combined profits for some of the largest G7-headquartered corporations are expected to exceed pre-war projections by $413 million on average.

“Conflict devastates countries and costs countless lives, yet for some it is extraordinarily profitable,” said Oxfam International Executive Director Amitabh Behar. “This is a brutal system that redistributes wealth upwards —from workers to shareholders, from the poorest to the richest, from those with the least power to those who already have far too much of it. While families are skipping meals and governments slash lifesaving aid, we are witnessing a grotesque billionaire bonanza.”

This fifth major global crisis since 2020 is being met with political paralysis and retreat. Unlike the coordinated international action seen in the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine —when governments temporarily suspended debt service payments and the International Monetary Fund provided emergency lending—, G7 leaders are doing less than ever to help poorer countries.

Crucially, Oxfam warns that the remaining "G6" leaders —Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK— must stop using the US administration's destructive actions in the global economy and in fueling conflict as an excuse for their own inaction. The G6 possesses immense, independent financial and diplomatic leverage that they are choosing to withhold.

Between 2024 and 2025, the G7 presided over the largest reduction in official development assistance (ODA) in its history, slashing aid to the world’s poorest countries by $48 billion. This is equivalent to the wealth accumulated by G7 billionaires in just nine days during that same period.

The human cost of the G7’s inaction is catastrophic. Since France last chaired the G7 summit, 44 people have fallen into a humanitarian emergency every single minute. From the preventable Ebola crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo to the ongoing genocide in Gaza —the most extreme and devastating example of G7 inaction, where not a single G7 country has imposed an arms embargo on Israel, let alone cut off arms being used in atrocities— multilateralism is being actively destroyed.

“To secure President Trump’s attendance at this summit, President Macron agreed to ignore discussions on climate breakdown, spiraling inequality, and the need for coordinated responses to overlapping global crises,” said Behar. “Even words like ‘gender’ or ‘climate’ have been expunged from the agenda to appease Washington. Rather than defending collective governance, Macron and his peers are accommodating its destruction. This will have consequences measured in lives.”

“The G6 can’t plead powerlessness,” Behar added. “They can cancel debt. They can tax windfall profits and extreme wealth. They can advocate for a new issuance of Special Drawing Rights. They can provide poorer countries with aid. Refusing to act simply because Washington will not join them is not diplomacy —it is cowardice. And it will only accelerate the G6’s slide into global irrelevance.”

Oxfam is calling on G7 leaders —and the G6 independently if necessary— to immediately implement a four-part response to protect ordinary people from the crisis:
 

• Tax the excessive profits of corporations and the super-rich to reduce inequality. 
• Suspend and cancel debt. Replicate the COVID-19 playbook by immediately suspending all bilateral debt payments from low- and middle-income countries and use legislative mechanisms to force private creditors to do the same. Cancel unsustainable debt, which forces governments to make devastating cuts to essential public services.
• Boost aid. Meet ODA commitments by returning to the 0.7 percent Gross National Income (GNI) target.
• Unlock global liquidity. Support an immediate new issuance of Special Drawing Rights through the IMF —decoupled from quota shares— to inject much-needed liquidity into struggling economies without adding to their debt burdens. Concurrently, International financial institutions must deploy conditionality-free emergency lending, mirroring the crisis response deployed during the pandemic.