Shell consultant quits, accusing firm of ‘excessive harms’ to surroundings | Shell

A senior security marketing 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 atmosphere.

Caroline Dennett claimed Shell had a “disregard for local weather change risks” and urged others within the oil and gas business to “stroll away whereas there’s nonetheless time”.

The manager, who works for the unbiased 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 quit because of Shell’s “double-talk on climate”.

Dennett accused the oil and fuel agency of “working beyond the design limits of our planetary methods” and “not putting environmental security earlier than manufacturing”.

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

“They know that continued oil and gas extraction causes excessive harms, to our climate, to our surroundings and to individuals. And whatever they say, Shell is solely not winding down on fossil fuels.”

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

Shell was a “main consumer” of Dennett’s business, which specialises in evaluating security procedures in high-risk industries together with oil and fuel manufacturing. She started working with Shell in the aftermath of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, which rocked the trade.

“I can not work for an organization that ignores all the alarms and dismisses the dangers of climate change and ecological collapse,” she mentioned. “Because, opposite to Shell’s public expressions around net zero, they don't seem to be winding down on oil and fuel, however planning to explore and extract far more.”

Dennett – a criminal justice graduate who has spent her career in research and consultancy – was impressed to cease working with Shell after watching information footage of Extinction Rebellion climate protesters urging the company’s staff to depart. The motion’s TruthTeller whistleblowing venture encourages oil and gas employees to stroll away from the trade.

The consultant, who runs inner safety surveys and relies in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to have the ability to stroll away and “many people working in fossil fuel firms simply aren’t so fortunate”.

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

In late 2020, a number of Shell executives in its clean vitality sector left amid reviews they were annoyed on the tempo 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 might be discussed on the meeting the place the Dutch activist group Observe It will push for the company’s policies to be extra in line with the Paris local weather accord. Shell’s board has informed traders to reject the group’s resolution that asks it to set more stringent climate goals.

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

The Shell chief government, Ben van Beurden, could expertise an investor rise up in opposition to his £13.5m pay packet on the AGM after the funding adviser Pirc urged a vote in opposition to 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 company by 2050 and hundreds of our people are working exhausting to realize this. We have 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, though the world will nonetheless want oil and fuel for many years 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 energy industry reported bumper profits fuelled by the rise in market prices, prompting opposition events to name on the federal government to bring in a one-off levy.

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

Harbour Energy’s chief executive, Linda Cook, informed the Financial Occasions: “The next tax burden will make it more challenging for new oil and gasoline projects to fulfill funding hurdle rates, which means fewer tasks might be sanctioned.

“This is at a time when trade is being encouraged to extend home UK oil and fuel manufacturing and help an orderly power transition.”

Harbour has told the government it plans to take a position $6bn within the North Sea over three years as business makes its case in opposition to the tax. The Guardian revealed this month that Cook had obtained a £4.6m “golden hello” from the firm.