Shell advisor quits, accusing firm of ‘extreme harms’ to setting | Shell

A senior safety consultant has quit working with Shell after 11 years, accusing the fossil gas producer in a bombshell public video of inflicting “excessive harms” to the surroundings.

Caroline Dennett claimed Shell had a “disregard for local weather change dangers” and urged others within the oil and gas industry to “walk away while there’s nonetheless time”.

The chief, who works for the unbiased 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 stop due to Shell’s “double-talk on local weather”.

Dennett accused the oil and gasoline agency of “operating beyond the design limits of our planetary programs” and “not putting environmental security before manufacturing”.

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

“They know that continued oil and fuel extraction causes extreme harms, to our local weather, to our environment and to individuals. And whatever they say, Shell is just not winding down on fossil fuels.”

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

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

“I can not work for an organization 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 web zero, they don't seem to be winding down on oil and gas, however planning to explore and extract much more.”

Dennett – a prison justice graduate who has spent her profession in analysis and consultancy – was impressed to stop working with Shell after watching news footage of Extinction Rebel climate protesters urging the corporate’s workers to leave. The motion’s TruthTeller whistleblowing project encourages oil and gasoline staff to walk away from the trade.

The marketing consultant, who runs inner security surveys and relies in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to be able to walk away and “many people working in fossil gas companies simply 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 vision for extra oil and gas extraction secures a safe future for humanity”.

In late 2020, a number of Shell executives in its clear vitality sector left amid studies they were annoyed at the pace 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 shall be mentioned at the assembly where the Dutch activist group Observe This can push for the corporate’s policies to be more in keeping with the Paris local weather accord. Shell’s board has advised investors to reject the group’s resolution that asks it to set extra stringent local weather goals.

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

The Shell chief govt, Ben van Beurden, could experience an investor rise up towards his £13.5m pay packet on the AGM after the investment adviser Pirc urged a vote towards it.

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A Shell spokesperson mentioned: “Be in little doubt, we're determined to ship on our global technique to be a net zero company by 2050 and thousands of our individuals are working onerous to attain this. We have set targets for the quick, 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 still want oil and gas for many years to come in sectors that may’t be simply decarbonised.”

Shell also faces the prospect of a possible windfall tax to fund cuts to household payments after the power business reported bumper profits fuelled by the rise in market costs, prompting opposition events to call on the federal government to herald a one-off levy.

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

Harbour Vitality’s chief govt, Linda Cook, instructed the Financial Times: “A higher tax burden will make it more challenging for brand spanking new oil and gasoline initiatives to meet investment hurdle charges, that means fewer tasks can be sanctioned.

“That is at a time when industry is being inspired to increase domestic UK oil and gas production and assist an orderly energy transition.”

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