Shell guide quits, accusing firm of ‘extreme harms’ to atmosphere | Shell

A senior security guide has give up working with Shell after 11 years, accusing the fossil fuel producer in a bombshell public video of causing “excessive harms” to the surroundings.

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 nonetheless time”.

The executive, who works for the independent company 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 stated she had give up due to Shell’s “double-talk on climate”.

Dennett accused the oil and gasoline firm of “working past the design limits of our planetary methods” and “not putting environmental security before production”.

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

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

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

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

“I can not work for a company that ignores all the alarms and dismisses the risks of climate change and ecological collapse,” she said. “Because, opposite to Shell’s public expressions round web zero, they don't seem to be winding down on oil and gasoline, however planning to discover and extract far more.”

Dennett – a legal justice graduate who has spent her profession in research and consultancy – was inspired to stop working with Shell after watching news footage of Extinction Rebellion climate protesters urging the corporate’s employees to go away. The movement’s TruthTeller whistleblowing venture encourages oil and gas staff to walk away from the business.

The guide, who runs inner 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 companies just aren’t so lucky”.

She urged Shell’s executives to “look within the mirror and ask themselves if they really believe their vision for more oil and fuel extraction secures a secure future for humanity”.

In late 2020, several Shell executives in its clean energy sector left amid stories they have been pissed off at 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 will likely be mentioned on the assembly the place the Dutch activist group Follow This will push for the company’s policies to be extra according to the Paris local weather accord. Shell’s board has informed buyers to reject the group’s resolution that asks it to set extra 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, could experience an investor riot towards his £13.5m pay packet at the AGM after the investment adviser Pirc urged a vote in opposition to it.

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A Shell spokesperson stated: “Be in no doubt, we are decided to ship on our world strategy to be a internet zero company by 2050 and thousands of our persons are working hard to realize this. We have set targets for the brief, 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 need oil and gas for many years to come 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 industry reported bumper earnings fuelled by the increase in market prices, prompting opposition events to name on the government to usher 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 will lead to the industry approving fewer initiatives.

Harbour Vitality’s chief government, Linda Cook, instructed the Monetary Times: “A better tax burden will make it more difficult for brand new oil and gas projects to satisfy investment hurdle charges, that means fewer initiatives will likely be sanctioned.

“This is at a time when industry is being encouraged to increase home UK oil and fuel manufacturing and assist an orderly energy transition.”

Harbour has told the federal government it plans to invest $6bn within the North Sea over three years as business makes its case towards the tax. The Guardian revealed this month that Cook had acquired a £4.6m “golden whats up” from the firm.