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

A senior security 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 climate change dangers” and urged others in the oil and gas industry to “walk away while there’s still 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 employees. In an accompanying video, posted on LinkedIn, she mentioned she had quit due to Shell’s “double-talk on local weather”.

Dennett accused the oil and fuel firm of “operating beyond the design limits of our planetary methods” and “not placing environmental safety earlier than production”.

She stated: “Shell’s acknowledged security ambition is to ‘do no harm’ – ‘Objective Zero’, they name it – and it sounds honourable however they are utterly failing on it.

“They know that continued oil and gasoline extraction causes extreme harms, to our climate, to our surroundings and to individuals. And no matter they say, Shell is simply not winding down on fossil fuels.”

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

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

“I can no longer work for a corporation that ignores all of the alarms and dismisses the dangers of climate change and ecological collapse,” she said. “As a result of, opposite to Shell’s public expressions round net zero, they don't seem to be winding down on oil and gasoline, however planning to explore and extract rather more.”

Dennett – a criminal justice graduate who has spent her career in analysis and consultancy – was impressed to cease working with Shell after watching news footage of Extinction Revolt climate protesters urging the company’s staff to depart. The movement’s TruthTeller whistleblowing undertaking encourages oil and gas workers to stroll away from the industry.

The guide, who runs internal safety surveys and relies in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to be able to stroll away and “many people working in fossil fuel companies 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 gasoline extraction secures a protected future for humanity”.

In late 2020, several Shell executives in its clear vitality sector left amid stories they had been frustrated at the tempo of Shell’s shift in 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 at the assembly where the Dutch activist group Follow This may push for the company’s insurance policies to be extra in line with the Paris local weather accord. Shell’s board has instructed traders to reject the group’s resolution that asks it to set more stringent climate objectives.

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

The Shell chief executive, Ben van Beurden, might expertise an investor insurrection 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 stated: “Be in little question, we are determined to deliver on our world strategy to be a internet zero firm by 2050 and hundreds of our people are working hard to achieve this. We've set targets for the quick, medium and long run, and have every intention of hitting them.

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

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

On Monday, the most important oil and fuel producer in the North Sea spoke out against a one-off levy, arguing it might result in the trade approving fewer initiatives.

Harbour Energy’s chief govt, Linda Cook dinner, instructed the Financial Times: “A better tax burden will make it tougher for new oil and gasoline initiatives to fulfill funding hurdle charges, meaning fewer tasks might be sanctioned.

“That is at a time when industry is being encouraged to increase domestic UK oil and gas production and assist an orderly vitality transition.”

Harbour has told the federal government it plans to take a position $6bn in the North Sea over three years as trade makes its case against the tax. The Guardian revealed this month that Cook dinner had received a £4.6m “golden good day” from the firm.