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

A senior security advisor has give up working with Shell after 11 years, accusing the fossil gasoline producer in a bombshell public video of inflicting “excessive harms” to the atmosphere.

Caroline Dennett claimed Shell had a “disregard for climate change risks” and urged others within the oil and gasoline industry to “walk away whereas there’s nonetheless time”.

The chief, who works for the independent company 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 said she had quit due to Shell’s “double-talk on climate”.

Dennett accused the oil and gasoline firm of “operating beyond the design limits of our planetary methods” and “not putting environmental safety earlier than manufacturing”.

She said: “Shell’s said security ambition is to ‘do no harm’ – ‘Purpose Zero’, they call 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 our environment and to folks. And whatever they say, Shell is solely not winding down on fossil fuels.”

Dennett instructed 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 consumer” of Dennett’s enterprise, which specialises in evaluating safety procedures in high-risk industries including oil and fuel 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. “Because, opposite to Shell’s public expressions around web zero, they don't seem to be winding down on oil and fuel, however planning to explore and extract rather more.”

Dennett – a felony justice graduate who has spent her career in research and consultancy – was inspired to stop working with Shell after watching information footage of Extinction Rebel climate protesters urging the company’s workers to leave. The movement’s TruthTeller whistleblowing project encourages oil and gasoline employees to stroll away from the industry.

The marketing consultant, who runs internal safety surveys and is based in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to be able to stroll away and “many people working in fossil gas companies just aren’t so lucky”.

She urged Shell’s executives to “look in the mirror and ask themselves in the event that they actually consider their imaginative and prescient for extra oil and gasoline extraction secures a secure future for humanity”.

In late 2020, several Shell executives in its clean energy sector left amid stories they were pissed off on 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 might be discussed on the assembly where the Dutch activist group Follow This will push for the company’s insurance policies to be more per 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 local weather transition proposals.

The Shell chief government, Ben van Beurden, might expertise an investor revolt in opposition to his £13.5m pay packet at 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 decided to ship on our international strategy to be a net zero company by 2050 and thousands of our people are working hard to achieve this. We now have set targets for the short, medium and long term, and have each intention of hitting them.

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

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

On Monday, the largest oil and fuel producer within the North Sea spoke out against a one-off levy, arguing it could lead to the business approving fewer initiatives.

Harbour Energy’s chief government, Linda Prepare dinner, advised the Financial Occasions: “A better tax burden will make it more difficult for brand new oil and gas tasks to fulfill funding hurdle rates, meaning fewer tasks will likely be sanctioned.

“This is at a time when industry is being inspired to increase domestic UK oil and fuel manufacturing and help an orderly vitality transition.”

Harbour has informed 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 dinner had received a £4.6m “golden hello” from the firm.