Shell guide quits, accusing agency of ‘excessive harms’ to environment | Shell

A senior security consultant has stop 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 climate change risks” and urged others within the oil and fuel industry to “stroll away whereas there’s still time”.

The manager, who works for the impartial 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 give up due to Shell’s “double-talk on climate”.

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

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

“They know that continued oil and gasoline extraction causes excessive harms, to our local weather, to our environment and to people. And whatever they are saying, Shell is just not winding down on fossil fuels.”

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

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

“I can now not work for a corporation that ignores all the alarms and dismisses the risks of local weather change and ecological collapse,” she stated. “As a result of, opposite to Shell’s public expressions around internet zero, they are not winding down on oil and gas, however planning to discover and extract way more.”

Dennett – a legal justice graduate who has spent her career in analysis and consultancy – was inspired to cease working with Shell after watching information footage of Extinction Rise up climate protesters urging the company’s staff to leave. The motion’s TruthTeller whistleblowing undertaking encourages oil and fuel employees to walk away from the trade.

The marketing consultant, who runs inside security surveys and is based in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to have the ability to walk away and “many people working in fossil gas firms simply aren’t so lucky”.

She urged Shell’s executives to “look in the mirror and ask themselves in the event that they really imagine their imaginative and prescient for more oil and gasoline extraction secures a protected future for humanity”.

In late 2020, a number of Shell executives in its clear energy sector left amid experiences they had been frustrated on 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 cut back emissions shall be discussed at the meeting where the Dutch activist group Follow This may push for the company’s policies to be more in step with the Paris climate 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 said it intends to abstain on a vote on the firm’s local weather transition proposals.

The Shell chief executive, Ben van Beurden, may experience an investor revolt towards his £13.5m pay packet at the AGM after the investment adviser Pirc urged a vote against it.

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A Shell spokesperson said: “Be in little doubt, we are determined to deliver on our world strategy to be a web zero company by 2050 and thousands of our persons are working arduous to attain this. Now we have set targets for the quick, medium and long run, and have each intention of hitting them.

“We’re already investing billions of dollars in low-carbon power, though 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 possible windfall tax to fund cuts to family bills after the energy business reported bumper income fuelled by the rise in market costs, prompting opposition parties to call on the government to bring in a one-off levy.

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

Harbour Energy’s chief govt, Linda Cook, told the Monetary Instances: “The next tax burden will make it more difficult for brand spanking new oil and gasoline initiatives to satisfy investment hurdle charges, which means fewer initiatives will probably be sanctioned.

“This is at a time when trade is being inspired to extend home UK oil and fuel production and assist an orderly power transition.”

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