Shell guide quits, accusing firm of ‘extreme harms’ to atmosphere | Shell

A senior safety guide has stop working with Shell after 11 years, accusing the fossil fuel producer in a bombshell public video of causing “extreme harms” to the atmosphere.

Caroline Dennett claimed Shell had a “disregard for climate change dangers” and urged others in the oil and fuel trade to “stroll away whereas 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 workers. In an accompanying video, posted on LinkedIn, she mentioned she had give up due to Shell’s “double-talk on local weather”.

Dennett accused the oil and gasoline firm of “working beyond the design limits of our planetary programs” and “not putting environmental safety before production”.

She said: “Shell’s said safety ambition is to ‘do no hurt’ – ‘Aim Zero’, they name it – and it sounds honourable but they are utterly failing on it.

“They know that continued oil and gas extraction causes extreme harms, to our climate, to the environment and to people. And no matter they are saying, Shell is just not winding down on fossil fuels.”

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

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

“I can no longer work for an organization that ignores all of the alarms and dismisses the risks of local weather change and ecological collapse,” she stated. “Because, contrary to Shell’s public expressions around net zero, they are not winding down on oil and gasoline, but planning to discover and extract rather more.”

Dennett – a legal justice graduate who has spent her profession in analysis and consultancy – was inspired to cease working with Shell after watching news footage of Extinction Insurrection local weather protesters urging the corporate’s employees to leave. The motion’s TruthTeller whistleblowing project encourages oil and gas staff to stroll away from the industry.

The guide, who runs inside security surveys and is based 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 fortunate”.

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

In late 2020, a number of Shell executives in its clear energy sector left amid reports they had been annoyed on 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 be discussed at the assembly where the Dutch activist group Observe It will push for the corporate’s insurance policies to be more in line with the Paris local weather accord. Shell’s board has told traders to reject the group’s decision that asks it to set more stringent local weather targets.

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, might experience an investor rebellion 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 strategy to be a net zero company by 2050 and hundreds of our persons are working exhausting to achieve this. We now have set targets for the brief, medium and long term, and have every intention of hitting them.

“We’re already investing billions of dollars in low-carbon power, though the world will still want oil and fuel for decades to return in sectors that may’t be simply decarbonised.”

Shell additionally faces the prospect of a possible windfall tax to fund cuts to household payments after the power business reported bumper earnings fuelled by the increase in market prices, prompting opposition parties to call on the federal government to bring in a one-off levy.

On Monday, the most important oil and fuel producer within the North Sea spoke out in opposition to a one-off levy, arguing it will lead to the industry approving fewer tasks.

Harbour Vitality’s chief executive, Linda Cook dinner, informed the Monetary Instances: “A higher tax burden will make it more difficult for brand new oil and gasoline projects to satisfy investment hurdle charges, that means fewer initiatives shall be sanctioned.

“This is at a time when business is being encouraged to extend domestic UK oil and gas production and assist an orderly power transition.”

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