Shell consultant quits, accusing agency of ‘extreme harms’ to surroundings | Shell

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

Caroline Dennett claimed Shell had a “disregard for climate change dangers” and urged others in the oil and gas industry to “walk away whereas there’s still 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 local weather”.

Dennett accused the oil and gas agency of “working beyond the design limits of our planetary programs” and “not placing environmental safety earlier than manufacturing”.

She mentioned: “Shell’s stated security ambition is to ‘do no hurt’ – ‘Goal Zero’, they call it – and it sounds honourable however they are fully failing on it.

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

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

Shell was a “major shopper” of Dennett’s enterprise, which specialises in evaluating safety procedures in high-risk industries including oil and gas manufacturing. She began working with Shell within the aftermath of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, which rocked the trade.

“I can now not work for an organization that ignores all the alarms and dismisses the risks of local weather change and ecological collapse,” she mentioned. “Because, opposite to Shell’s public expressions round internet zero, they aren't winding down on oil and gas, but planning to explore and extract rather more.”

Dennett – a prison justice graduate who has spent her profession in analysis and consultancy – was inspired to cease working with Shell after watching news footage of Extinction Riot climate protesters urging the company’s staff to depart. The movement’s TruthTeller whistleblowing challenge encourages oil and gas workers to walk away from the business.

The advisor, who runs internal security surveys and is predicated in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to be able to walk away and “many people working in fossil gasoline firms just 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 vision for extra oil and gasoline extraction secures a secure future for humanity”.

In late 2020, a number of Shell executives in its clean vitality sector left amid stories they were frustrated 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 reduce emissions might be mentioned on the assembly the place the Dutch activist group Comply with It will push for the corporate’s policies to be extra per the Paris climate accord. Shell’s board has told investors to reject the group’s decision that asks it to set more stringent climate targets.

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

The Shell chief govt, Ben van Beurden, may expertise an investor riot towards his £13.5m pay packet at the AGM after the funding adviser Pirc urged a vote against it.

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A Shell spokesperson mentioned: “Be in no doubt, we are determined to deliver on our international technique to be a internet zero firm by 2050 and 1000's of our persons are working onerous to attain this. We now have set targets for the quick, medium and long term, and have each intention of hitting them.

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

Shell also faces the prospect of a potential windfall tax to fund cuts to family bills after the energy industry reported bumper profits fuelled by the increase in market costs, prompting opposition events to call on the government to bring in a one-off levy.

On Monday, the biggest oil and fuel producer within the North Sea spoke out towards a one-off levy, arguing it could lead to the industry approving fewer tasks.

Harbour Vitality’s chief govt, Linda Cook, instructed the Financial Instances: “The next tax burden will make it more difficult for new oil and gas initiatives to fulfill funding hurdle charges, that means fewer projects will be sanctioned.

“That is at a time when industry is being inspired to increase domestic UK oil and fuel manufacturing and help an orderly power transition.”

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