Shell guide quits, accusing agency of ‘excessive harms’ to atmosphere | Shell

A senior security marketing consultant has quit working with Shell after 11 years, accusing the fossil gasoline producer in a bombshell public video of inflicting “extreme harms” to the setting.

Caroline Dennett claimed Shell had a “disregard for local weather change risks” and urged others within the oil and gas industry to “walk away while 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 mentioned she had stop due to Shell’s “double-talk on climate”.

Dennett accused the oil and fuel firm of “operating beyond the design limits of our planetary methods” and “not putting environmental security before manufacturing”.

She said: “Shell’s said security ambition is to ‘do no harm’ – ‘Aim Zero’, they call it – and it sounds honourable however 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 individuals. And no matter they are saying, Shell is just not winding down on fossil fuels.”

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

Shell was a “main client” of Dennett’s business, which specialises in evaluating safety procedures in high-risk industries including oil and gasoline production. She began 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 company that ignores all of the alarms and dismisses the dangers of climate change and ecological collapse,” she mentioned. “As a result of, opposite to Shell’s public expressions round web zero, they don't seem to be winding down on oil and gasoline, but planning to explore and extract rather more.”

Dennett – a criminal justice graduate who has spent her profession in analysis and consultancy – was impressed to stop working with Shell after watching news footage of Extinction Rebellion climate protesters urging the company’s workers to go away. The motion’s TruthTeller whistleblowing challenge encourages oil and gas employees to walk away from the industry.

The advisor, who runs inside security surveys and relies in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to be able to walk away and “many individuals working in fossil fuel companies just aren’t so lucky”.

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

In late 2020, several Shell executives in its clean energy sector left amid reports they have been annoyed at the tempo of Shell’s shift towards greener fuels.

Her announcement comes on the eve of Shell’s AGM in London on Tuesday. Its plans to cut back emissions will likely be mentioned at the meeting where the Dutch activist group Observe This may push for the corporate’s insurance policies to be more consistent with the Paris local weather accord. Shell’s board has informed investors to reject the group’s resolution that asks it to set extra stringent climate objectives.

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

The Shell chief executive, Ben van Beurden, could expertise an investor rise up in opposition to his £13.5m pay packet on the AGM after the investment adviser Pirc urged a vote against it.

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A Shell spokesperson mentioned: “Be in little doubt, we are determined to deliver on our global technique to be a internet zero firm by 2050 and 1000's of our people are working laborious to attain this. We've 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, though the world will still want oil and fuel for decades to come in sectors that can’t be simply decarbonised.”

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

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

Harbour Vitality’s chief govt, Linda Prepare dinner, informed the Financial Occasions: “A higher tax burden will make it more difficult for new oil and gasoline tasks to meet investment hurdle rates, which means fewer initiatives will be sanctioned.

“This is at a time when industry is being encouraged to increase home UK oil and fuel production and assist an orderly vitality transition.”

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