Shell guide quits, accusing firm of ‘excessive harms’ to surroundings | Shell

A senior security consultant has quit working with Shell after 11 years, accusing the fossil gasoline producer in a bombshell public video of inflicting “extreme harms” to the surroundings.

Caroline Dennett claimed Shell had a “disregard for climate change risks” and urged others within the oil and gasoline trade to “stroll away whereas there’s nonetheless time”.

The chief, who works for the impartial agency Clout, ended her working relationship with Shell in an open letter to its executives and 1,400 staff. In an accompanying video, posted on LinkedIn, she said she had quit because of Shell’s “double-talk on local weather”.

Dennett accused the oil and fuel agency of “operating beyond the design limits of our planetary systems” and “not putting environmental security before manufacturing”.

She said: “Shell’s said safety ambition is to ‘do no hurt’ – ‘Aim Zero’, they name it – and it sounds honourable however they are utterly failing on it.

“They know that continued oil and gasoline extraction causes excessive harms, to our climate, to our environment and to people. And whatever they are saying, Shell is solely not winding down on fossil fuels.”

Dennett advised the Guardian she “could not marry these conflicts with my conscience”, adding: “I could not carry that any longer, and I’m able to deal with the results.”

Shell was a “major client” of Dennett’s enterprise, which specialises in evaluating safety procedures in high-risk industries together with oil and fuel production. She started working with Shell within the aftermath of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, which rocked the industry.

“I can now not work for a corporation that ignores all the alarms and dismisses the risks of climate change and ecological collapse,” she said. “Because, contrary to Shell’s public expressions round net zero, they don't seem to be winding down on oil and fuel, however planning to explore and extract way more.”

Dennett – a felony justice graduate who has spent her career in research and consultancy – was impressed to cease working with Shell after watching news footage of Extinction Revolt climate protesters urging the company’s employees to go away. The movement’s TruthTeller whistleblowing mission encourages oil and gas staff to walk away from the industry.

The marketing consultant, who runs inside safety surveys and is based in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to have the ability to stroll away and “many people working in fossil gas firms simply aren’t so lucky”.

She urged Shell’s executives to “look within the mirror and ask themselves if they really consider their imaginative and prescient for more oil and gas extraction secures a secure future for humanity”.

In late 2020, a number of Shell executives in its clean vitality sector left amid stories they have been frustrated on the pace of Shell’s shift in direction of greener fuels.

Her announcement comes on the eve of Shell’s AGM in London on Tuesday. Its plans to scale back emissions shall be mentioned at the assembly where the Dutch activist group Follow This will push for the company’s policies to be extra in keeping with the Paris climate accord. Shell’s board has informed investors to reject the group’s decision that asks it to set more stringent local weather targets.

The Shell investor Royal London has said it intends to abstain on a vote on the firm’s climate transition proposals.

The Shell chief government, Ben van Beurden, might experience an investor rise up towards his £13.5m pay packet on the AGM after the funding adviser Pirc urged a vote against it.

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A Shell spokesperson mentioned: “Be in little doubt, we are decided to deliver on our international strategy to be a web zero firm by 2050 and hundreds of our people are working onerous to achieve this. We have now set targets for the quick, medium and long run, and have every intention of hitting them.

“We’re already investing billions of dollars in low-carbon power, although the world will nonetheless want oil and fuel for decades to come in sectors that may’t be simply decarbonised.”

Shell additionally faces the prospect of a possible windfall tax to fund cuts to household payments after the vitality business reported bumper profits fuelled by the increase in market prices, prompting opposition parties to name on the federal government to bring in a one-off levy.

On Monday, the biggest oil and fuel producer within the North Sea spoke out in opposition to a one-off levy, arguing it might result in the business approving fewer tasks.

Harbour Power’s chief executive, Linda Cook, instructed the Financial Instances: “The next tax burden will make it tougher for brand spanking new oil and gas projects to satisfy funding hurdle rates, meaning fewer initiatives shall be sanctioned.

“That is at a time when business is being inspired to extend home UK oil and gasoline manufacturing and support an orderly vitality transition.”

Harbour has advised the government it plans to speculate $6bn in the North Sea over three years as business makes its case in opposition to the tax. The Guardian revealed this month that Cook had obtained a £4.6m “golden whats up” from the firm.