Shell consultant quits, accusing agency of ‘extreme harms’ to environment | Shell

A senior safety consultant has quit working with Shell after 11 years, accusing the fossil gas 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 gasoline trade to “walk away while there’s nonetheless time”.

The executive, who works for the independent agency Clout, ended her working relationship with Shell in an open letter to its executives and 1,400 employees. In an accompanying video, posted on LinkedIn, she stated she had quit because of Shell’s “double-talk on climate”.

Dennett accused the oil and gasoline agency of “operating past the design limits of our planetary techniques” and “not putting environmental safety before production”.

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

“They know that continued oil and fuel extraction causes extreme harms, to our local weather, to our surroundings and to folks. And no matter they say, Shell is just not winding down on fossil fuels.”

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

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

“I can not work for an organization that ignores all the alarms and dismisses the dangers of local weather change and ecological collapse,” she said. “Because, opposite to Shell’s public expressions round web zero, they don't seem to be winding down on oil and gasoline, but planning to discover and extract rather more.”

Dennett – a prison justice graduate who has spent her career in research and consultancy – was impressed to stop working with Shell after watching news footage of Extinction Riot local weather protesters urging the corporate’s workers to leave. The movement’s TruthTeller whistleblowing challenge encourages oil and gasoline staff to stroll away from the business.

The guide, who runs inside safety surveys and is predicated in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to have the ability to walk away and “many people working in fossil fuel firms simply aren’t so fortunate”.

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

In late 2020, several Shell executives in its clear power sector left amid reviews they were frustrated on the tempo 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 reduce emissions shall be mentioned at the assembly the place the Dutch activist group Observe This will push for the company’s insurance policies to be more consistent with the Paris climate accord. Shell’s board has advised traders to reject the group’s resolution that asks it to set extra stringent local weather targets.

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

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

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A Shell spokesperson stated: “Be in little question, we are determined to ship on our global strategy to be a internet zero firm by 2050 and 1000's of our individuals are working exhausting to realize this. We've set targets for the brief, medium and long run, and have each intention of hitting them.

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

Shell additionally faces the prospect of a potential windfall tax to fund cuts to household bills after the power industry reported bumper profits fuelled by the rise in market prices, prompting opposition events to name on the federal government to usher in a one-off levy.

On Monday, the largest oil and gasoline producer in the North Sea spoke out towards a one-off levy, arguing it will lead to the industry approving fewer projects.

Harbour Energy’s chief govt, Linda Prepare dinner, advised the Monetary Times: “A higher tax burden will make it tougher for new oil and fuel initiatives to meet funding hurdle rates, that means fewer projects will probably be sanctioned.

“That is at a time when business is being encouraged to increase home UK oil and gasoline manufacturing and help an orderly energy transition.”

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