Shell guide quits, accusing firm of ‘excessive harms’ to environment | Shell

A senior security advisor has give up 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 climate change risks” and urged others within the oil and gasoline industry to “stroll away while there’s nonetheless time”.

The executive, who works for the impartial 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 give up due to Shell’s “double-talk on climate”.

Dennett accused the oil and gas agency of “operating beyond the design limits of our planetary systems” and “not placing environmental safety earlier than manufacturing”.

She said: “Shell’s said security ambition is to ‘do no harm’ – ‘Aim Zero’, they name it – and it sounds honourable however they're completely failing on it.

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

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

Shell was a “major consumer” of Dennett’s enterprise, which specialises in evaluating security 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 industry.

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

Dennett – a criminal justice graduate who has spent her career in analysis and consultancy – was inspired to cease working with Shell after watching information footage of Extinction Riot climate protesters urging the corporate’s staff to leave. The motion’s TruthTeller whistleblowing project encourages oil and fuel staff to walk away from the industry.

The advisor, who runs inside security surveys and is based in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to be able to stroll away and “many people working in fossil gasoline corporations just aren’t so fortunate”.

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

In late 2020, a number of Shell executives in its clear vitality sector left amid studies they have been annoyed on 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 reduce emissions can be mentioned on the meeting where the Dutch activist group Comply with This will push for the corporate’s policies to be extra consistent with the Paris climate accord. Shell’s board has advised buyers to reject the group’s decision that asks it to set extra stringent local weather targets.

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

The Shell chief executive, Ben van Beurden, might expertise an investor insurrection against 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 said: “Be in little doubt, we're determined to ship on our global strategy to be a net zero company by 2050 and 1000's of our people are working laborious to attain this. We've got set targets for the short, medium and long run, and have each intention of hitting them.

“We’re already investing billions of dollars in low-carbon energy, although the world will still want oil and gas for many years to come in sectors that can’t be simply decarbonised.”

Shell also faces the prospect of a potential windfall tax to fund cuts to household payments after the vitality business reported bumper income fuelled by the rise in market costs, prompting opposition parties to call 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 against a one-off levy, arguing it could result in the business approving fewer tasks.

Harbour Vitality’s chief govt, Linda Prepare dinner, advised the Monetary Instances: “A higher tax burden will make it more difficult for brand spanking new oil and gas initiatives to satisfy funding hurdle rates, meaning fewer projects can be sanctioned.

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

Harbour has told the 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 acquired a £4.6m “golden good day” from the firm.