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

A senior security advisor has give up working with Shell after 11 years, accusing the fossil gas producer in a bombshell public video of inflicting “excessive harms” to the environment.

Caroline Dennett claimed Shell had a “disregard for climate change dangers” and urged others in the oil and fuel business to “stroll away while there’s still time”.

The manager, 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 quit because of Shell’s “double-talk on climate”.

Dennett accused the oil and fuel agency of “operating beyond the design limits of our planetary programs” and “not placing environmental security before manufacturing”.

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

“They know that continued oil and gas extraction causes extreme harms, to our local weather, to our surroundings and to folks. 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”, adding: “I couldn't carry that any longer, and I’m ready to cope with the consequences.”

Shell was a “major consumer” of Dennett’s enterprise, which specialises in evaluating safety procedures in high-risk industries including oil and gasoline production. She started 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 said. “As a result of, contrary to Shell’s public expressions round net zero, they don't seem to be winding down on oil and fuel, but planning to discover and extract much more.”

Dennett – a criminal justice graduate who has spent her career in research and consultancy – was impressed to stop working with Shell after watching news footage of Extinction Riot climate protesters urging the corporate’s workers to depart. The movement’s TruthTeller whistleblowing undertaking encourages oil and gasoline staff to stroll away from the trade.

The advisor, who runs internal safety surveys and is predicated in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to have the ability to walk away and “many individuals working in fossil fuel firms 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 vision for extra oil and fuel extraction secures a protected future for humanity”.

In late 2020, several Shell executives in its clean energy sector left amid studies they have been pissed off 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 scale back emissions can be mentioned at the assembly the place the Dutch activist group Follow This can push for the company’s policies to be more in keeping with the Paris local weather accord. Shell’s board has advised buyers to reject the group’s resolution that asks it to set extra stringent climate goals.

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

The Shell chief executive, Ben van Beurden, might expertise an investor rebellion 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 said: “Be in little question, we are decided to deliver on our international strategy to be a internet zero firm by 2050 and 1000's of our persons are working laborious to achieve this. We've got set targets for the brief, medium and long term, and have each intention of hitting them.

“We’re already investing billions of dollars in low-carbon energy, although the world will still want oil and gasoline for decades to come in sectors that may’t be easily decarbonised.”

Shell also faces the prospect of a potential windfall tax to fund cuts to family bills after the power trade reported bumper income fuelled by the increase in market prices, prompting opposition events to call on the federal government to herald a one-off levy.

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

Harbour Energy’s chief government, Linda Cook dinner, told the Monetary Occasions: “A better tax burden will make it more difficult for brand new oil and fuel initiatives to meet funding hurdle charges, which means fewer projects can be sanctioned.

“This is at a time when industry is being encouraged to extend domestic UK oil and gas production and support an orderly energy transition.”

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