Shell guide quits, accusing agency of ‘excessive harms’ to environment | Shell

A senior safety marketing 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 local weather change dangers” and urged others within the oil and gas trade to “walk away whereas there’s nonetheless time”.

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

Dennett accused the oil and gas firm of “working past the design limits of our planetary systems” and “not putting environmental security earlier than production”.

She stated: “Shell’s acknowledged safety ambition is to ‘do no hurt’ – ‘Objective Zero’, they call it – and it sounds honourable but they're fully failing on it.

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

Dennett told the Guardian she “could not marry these conflicts with my conscience”, including: “I could not carry that any longer, and I’m ready to cope with the results.”

Shell was a “main consumer” of Dennett’s business, which specialises in evaluating security procedures in high-risk industries including oil and gas production. She began working with Shell within the aftermath of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, which rocked the industry.

“I can no longer work for a corporation that ignores all the alarms and dismisses the dangers of local weather change and ecological collapse,” she stated. “Because, contrary to Shell’s public expressions around net zero, they are not winding down on oil and gasoline, however planning to explore and extract way more.”

Dennett – a prison justice graduate who has spent her career in analysis and consultancy – was impressed to cease working with Shell after watching information footage of Extinction Rise up local weather protesters urging the company’s staff to leave. The movement’s TruthTeller whistleblowing mission encourages oil and fuel staff to stroll away from the trade.

The advisor, who runs internal security surveys and relies in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to be able to walk away and “many individuals working in fossil fuel firms just aren’t so lucky”.

She urged Shell’s executives to “look in the mirror and ask themselves in the event that they actually believe their vision for extra oil and fuel extraction secures a safe future for humanity”.

In late 2020, several Shell executives in its clear vitality sector left amid studies they have been frustrated at the pace of Shell’s shift in the direction of greener fuels.

Her announcement comes on the eve of Shell’s AGM in London on Tuesday. Its plans to scale back emissions will be discussed at the meeting the place the Dutch activist group Observe This can push for the company’s policies to be more in step with the Paris climate accord. Shell’s board has advised traders to reject the group’s decision that asks it to set more stringent climate goals.

The Shell investor Royal London has mentioned it intends to abstain on a vote on the agency’s local weather transition proposals.

The Shell chief government, Ben van Beurden, may experience an investor insurrection towards his £13.5m pay packet on the AGM after the funding adviser Pirc urged a vote in opposition to it.

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A Shell spokesperson said: “Be in no doubt, we're decided to ship on our world strategy to be a internet zero company by 2050 and thousands of our persons are working arduous to attain this. We have now set targets for the quick, medium and long term, and have each intention of hitting them.

“We’re already investing billions of dollars in low-carbon energy, although the world will still need oil and gas for decades to return in sectors that can’t be easily decarbonised.”

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

On Monday, the most important oil and fuel producer in the North Sea spoke out against a one-off levy, arguing it will lead to the industry approving fewer initiatives.

Harbour Power’s chief govt, Linda Prepare dinner, instructed the Financial Instances: “A higher tax burden will make it more challenging for brand new oil and gas projects to meet investment hurdle rates, which means fewer projects will likely be sanctioned.

“This is at a time when trade is being encouraged to extend home UK oil and gasoline manufacturing and support an orderly power transition.”

Harbour has informed the federal government it plans to take a position $6bn within the North Sea over three years as business makes its case against the tax. The Guardian revealed this month that Cook had obtained a £4.6m “golden good day” from the agency.