Shell consultant quits, accusing firm of ‘excessive harms’ to setting | Shell

A senior security guide has give up working with Shell after 11 years, accusing the fossil fuel producer in a bombshell public video of causing “excessive harms” to the surroundings.

Caroline Dennett claimed Shell had a “disregard for local weather change risks” and urged others in the oil and fuel trade to “walk away whereas there’s still time”.

The chief, who works for the independent agency 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 mentioned she had quit because of Shell’s “double-talk on local weather”.

Dennett accused the oil and fuel firm of “operating past the design limits of our planetary methods” and “not putting environmental security earlier than manufacturing”.

She said: “Shell’s stated security ambition is to ‘do no harm’ – ‘Aim Zero’, they name it – and it sounds honourable but they are completely failing on it.

“They know that continued oil and fuel extraction causes excessive harms, to our local weather, to the environment and to people. And no matter they say, Shell is solely not winding down on fossil fuels.”

Dennett informed the Guardian she “could not marry these conflicts with my conscience”, including: “I couldn't carry that any longer, and I’m ready to deal with the implications.”

Shell was a “major shopper” of Dennett’s enterprise, which specialises in evaluating safety procedures in high-risk industries including oil and gasoline production. She started 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 an organization that ignores all the alarms and dismisses the risks of climate change and ecological collapse,” she stated. “As a result of, opposite to Shell’s public expressions around internet zero, they are not winding down on oil and gasoline, however planning to discover 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 information footage of Extinction Rebel local weather protesters urging the corporate’s employees to depart. The motion’s TruthTeller whistleblowing venture encourages oil and fuel workers to walk away from the industry.

The marketing consultant, who runs inside security surveys and is predicated in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to be able to walk away and “many people working in fossil gasoline corporations just aren’t so lucky”.

She urged Shell’s executives to “look within the mirror and ask themselves if they actually believe their vision for more oil and gasoline extraction secures a safe future for humanity”.

In late 2020, several Shell executives in its clear energy sector left amid stories they had been annoyed on the tempo 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 cut back emissions will probably be discussed at the meeting where the Dutch activist group Follow This will push for the company’s insurance policies to be more in line with the Paris local weather accord. Shell’s board has informed traders to reject the group’s resolution that asks it to set extra stringent local weather goals.

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

The Shell chief executive, Ben van Beurden, may expertise an investor insurrection against his £13.5m pay packet on the AGM after the investment adviser Pirc urged a vote in opposition to it.

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A Shell spokesperson stated: “Be in no doubt, we're determined to deliver on our international technique to be a internet zero firm by 2050 and thousands of our people are working onerous to achieve this. We have now set targets for the brief, medium and long term, and have every intention of hitting them.

“We’re already investing billions of dollars in low-carbon energy, though the world will nonetheless need oil and gas for many years to come back in sectors that can’t be easily decarbonised.”

Shell additionally faces the prospect of a possible windfall tax to fund cuts to household bills after the energy business reported bumper earnings fuelled by the increase in market prices, prompting opposition events to name on the federal government to herald 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 initiatives.

Harbour Energy’s chief executive, Linda Cook, advised the Financial Occasions: “A higher tax burden will make it tougher for brand spanking new oil and gasoline projects to meet investment hurdle charges, that means fewer projects shall be sanctioned.

“This is at a time when trade is being encouraged to increase home UK oil and fuel manufacturing and help an orderly energy transition.”

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