Shell guide quits, accusing agency of ‘extreme harms’ to surroundings | 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 surroundings.

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 still time”.

The executive, who works for the independent agency Clout, ended her working relationship with Shell in an open letter to its executives and 1,400 workers. In an accompanying video, posted on LinkedIn, she said she had stop due to Shell’s “double-talk on climate”.

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

She stated: “Shell’s acknowledged safety ambition is to ‘do no harm’ – ‘Purpose Zero’, they call it – and it sounds honourable however they're utterly failing on it.

“They know that continued oil and fuel extraction causes excessive harms, to our climate, to our environment and to people. And no matter they say, Shell is solely not winding down on fossil fuels.”

Dennett advised 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 consequences.”

Shell was a “major client” of Dennett’s enterprise, which specialises in evaluating safety procedures in high-risk industries together with oil and fuel production. She started working with Shell within the aftermath of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, which rocked the trade.

“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, opposite to Shell’s public expressions around net zero, they don't seem to be winding down on oil and gasoline, but planning to explore and extract rather more.”

Dennett – a felony justice graduate who has spent her career in research and consultancy – was impressed to stop working with Shell after watching information footage of Extinction Insurrection local weather protesters urging the corporate’s workers to go away. The motion’s TruthTeller whistleblowing project encourages oil and gasoline staff to walk away from the industry.

The marketing consultant, who runs inner security surveys and relies 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 fortunate”.

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

In late 2020, a number of Shell executives in its clean vitality sector left amid stories they had been 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 cut back emissions shall be discussed at the assembly the place the Dutch activist group Comply with It will push for the company’s insurance policies to be extra consistent with the Paris climate accord. Shell’s board has instructed buyers to reject the group’s resolution that asks it to set more stringent climate objectives.

The Shell investor Royal London has stated 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 revolt in opposition to his £13.5m pay packet at 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 decided to deliver on our world technique to be a internet zero firm by 2050 and thousands of our persons are working exhausting to attain this. Now 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 power, although the world will nonetheless want oil and gas for decades to come in sectors that may’t be simply decarbonised.”

Shell also faces the prospect of a potential windfall tax to fund cuts to family bills after the energy business reported bumper earnings fuelled by the rise in market costs, prompting opposition events to call on the government to usher in a one-off levy.

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

Harbour Power’s chief govt, Linda Cook dinner, told the Monetary Times: “A better tax burden will make it tougher for brand spanking new oil and fuel projects to meet funding hurdle rates, meaning fewer projects will likely be sanctioned.

“That is at a time when business is being inspired to increase home UK oil and gas manufacturing and assist an orderly vitality transition.”

Harbour has advised the government it plans to invest $6bn within the North Sea over three years as industry makes its case towards the tax. The Guardian revealed this month that Prepare dinner had obtained a £4.6m “golden whats up” from the firm.