Shell consultant quits, accusing agency of ‘excessive harms’ to atmosphere | Shell

A senior safety advisor has stop working with Shell after 11 years, accusing the fossil gas 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 gasoline industry to “walk away whereas there’s still time”.

The manager, who works for the independent 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 stated she had give up because of Shell’s “double-talk on local weather”.

Dennett accused the oil and gasoline agency of “operating past the design limits of our planetary programs” and “not placing environmental safety earlier than production”.

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

“They know that continued oil and gasoline extraction causes extreme harms, to our local weather, to our environment and to individuals. And no matter they say, Shell is simply not winding down on fossil fuels.”

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

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

“I can no longer work for a company that ignores all of the alarms and dismisses the dangers of climate change and ecological collapse,” she said. “Because, contrary to Shell’s public expressions round net zero, they aren't winding down on oil and gasoline, however planning to discover and extract far more.”

Dennett – a legal justice graduate who has spent her career in research and consultancy – was impressed to stop working with Shell after watching news footage of Extinction Rise up climate protesters urging the company’s employees to leave. The movement’s TruthTeller whistleblowing mission encourages oil and fuel workers to walk away from the trade.

The advisor, who runs inner security surveys and is predicated in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to be able to stroll away and “many individuals working in fossil gas companies simply aren’t so lucky”.

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

In late 2020, a number of Shell executives in its clean energy sector left amid reviews they had been pissed off at 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 scale back emissions might be mentioned at the meeting the place the Dutch activist group Follow It will push for the corporate’s policies to be extra in step with the Paris local weather accord. Shell’s board has told investors to reject the group’s decision that asks it to set extra stringent local weather targets.

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

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

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A Shell spokesperson mentioned: “Be in little doubt, we are decided to ship on our world technique to be a net zero company by 2050 and hundreds of our individuals are working arduous to attain this. We've set targets for the brief, 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 still need oil and gas for many years to come back in sectors that may’t be easily decarbonised.”

Shell also faces the prospect of a possible windfall tax to fund cuts to family payments after the power industry reported bumper profits fuelled by the increase in market prices, prompting opposition events to name on the government to bring in a one-off levy.

On Monday, the biggest oil and fuel producer in the North Sea spoke out in opposition to a one-off levy, arguing it might lead to the trade approving fewer initiatives.

Harbour Vitality’s chief government, Linda Cook, told the Financial Occasions: “A higher tax burden will make it more difficult for brand spanking new oil and fuel projects to satisfy investment hurdle rates, which means fewer tasks will be sanctioned.

“That is at a time when business is being encouraged to increase home UK oil and fuel production and help an orderly vitality transition.”

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