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

A senior safety consultant has give up working with Shell after 11 years, accusing the fossil fuel producer in a bombshell public video of inflicting “extreme harms” to the setting.

Caroline Dennett claimed Shell had a “disregard for local weather change dangers” and urged others in the oil and fuel trade to “walk away while there’s nonetheless time”.

The manager, who works for the unbiased agency Clout, ended her working relationship with Shell in an open letter to its executives and 1,400 staff. In an accompanying video, posted on LinkedIn, she mentioned she had give up due to Shell’s “double-talk on climate”.

Dennett accused the oil and gasoline firm of “operating past the design limits of our planetary systems” and “not placing environmental safety earlier than manufacturing”.

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

“They know that continued oil and fuel extraction causes excessive harms, to our local weather, to our surroundings and to people. And no matter they are saying, Shell is simply not winding down on fossil fuels.”

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

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

“I can not work for an organization that ignores all the alarms and dismisses the dangers of local weather change and ecological collapse,” she said. “As a result of, opposite to Shell’s public expressions around internet zero, they don't seem to be winding down on oil and gasoline, but planning to explore and extract far more.”

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

The consultant, who runs inside safety surveys and is predicated in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to be able to walk 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 actually imagine their vision for more oil and gas extraction secures a safe future for humanity”.

In late 2020, a number of Shell executives in its clean energy sector left amid experiences they had been pissed off 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 reduce emissions will be mentioned on the assembly where the Dutch activist group Follow This will push for the corporate’s policies to be extra according to the Paris climate accord. Shell’s board has told investors to reject the group’s resolution that asks it to set extra stringent climate goals.

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

The Shell chief executive, Ben van Beurden, could expertise an investor rebellion towards 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 mentioned: “Be in no doubt, we are decided to ship on our international strategy to be a net zero firm by 2050 and hundreds of our people are working arduous to achieve this. We've set targets for the quick, medium and long term, and have every intention of hitting them.

“We’re already investing billions of dollars in low-carbon vitality, though the world will nonetheless want oil and gasoline 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 family bills after the energy trade reported bumper income fuelled by the rise 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 gas producer in the North Sea spoke out against a one-off levy, arguing it will lead to the trade approving fewer initiatives.

Harbour Energy’s chief government, Linda Cook, instructed the Financial Times: “The next tax burden will make it tougher for brand spanking new oil and gas tasks to meet funding hurdle rates, meaning fewer initiatives can be sanctioned.

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

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