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

A senior security advisor 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 environment.

Caroline Dennett claimed Shell had a “disregard for local weather change dangers” and urged others in the oil and fuel industry 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 staff. In an accompanying video, posted on LinkedIn, she said she had stop due to Shell’s “double-talk on local weather”.

Dennett accused the oil and gasoline agency of “working beyond the design limits of our planetary methods” and “not placing environmental safety earlier than production”.

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

“They know that continued oil and fuel extraction causes extreme harms, to our climate, to the environment and to people. And no matter they are saying, Shell is just not winding down on fossil fuels.”

Dennett instructed the Guardian she “could not marry these conflicts with my conscience”, adding: “I could not carry that any longer, and I’m ready to take care of the consequences.”

Shell was a “major shopper” of Dennett’s enterprise, which specialises in evaluating safety procedures in high-risk industries including oil and gas production. She started 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 corporation that ignores all the alarms and dismisses the risks of climate change and ecological collapse,” she said. “As a result of, opposite to Shell’s public expressions round internet zero, they aren't winding down on oil and gasoline, however 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 Rise up local weather protesters urging the corporate’s staff to go away. The movement’s TruthTeller whistleblowing undertaking encourages oil and gas workers 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 individuals working in fossil gas corporations simply aren’t so lucky”.

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

In late 2020, several Shell executives in its clean vitality sector left amid studies they were annoyed 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 mentioned at the meeting the place the Dutch activist group Follow This can push for the corporate’s policies to be more in step with the Paris climate accord. Shell’s board has told buyers to reject the group’s decision that asks it to set extra stringent local weather goals.

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

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

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A Shell spokesperson mentioned: “Be in little question, we're decided to deliver on our global technique to be a net zero company by 2050 and 1000's of our persons are working arduous to realize this. We've set targets for the short, medium and long term, and have every intention of hitting them.

“We’re already investing billions of dollars in low-carbon energy, although the world will nonetheless need oil and gasoline for decades to come back in sectors that can’t be simply decarbonised.”

Shell also faces the prospect of a potential windfall tax to fund cuts to household bills after the power trade reported bumper profits fuelled by the increase in market costs, prompting opposition parties to call on the federal government to herald a one-off levy.

On Monday, the most important oil and gas producer within the North Sea spoke out in opposition to a one-off levy, arguing it could result in the trade approving fewer initiatives.

Harbour Vitality’s chief executive, Linda Cook, instructed the Monetary Occasions: “A better tax burden will make it tougher for brand new oil and gas tasks to satisfy investment hurdle charges, that means fewer initiatives will likely be sanctioned.

“This is at a time when trade is being inspired to increase domestic UK oil and fuel production and support an orderly vitality transition.”

Harbour has told the government it plans to invest $6bn within the North Sea over three years as trade makes its case towards the tax. The Guardian revealed this month that Cook had obtained a £4.6m “golden hello” from the agency.