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

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

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

The executive, who works for the unbiased 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 said she had give up due to Shell’s “double-talk on local weather”.

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

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

“They know that continued oil and fuel extraction causes extreme harms, to our climate, to our surroundings and to individuals. And whatever they are saying, Shell is just not winding down on fossil fuels.”

Dennett told 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 implications.”

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

“I can not work for an organization that ignores all of the alarms and dismisses the risks of local weather change and ecological collapse,” she mentioned. “Because, contrary to Shell’s public expressions around web zero, they don't seem to be winding down on oil and fuel, however planning to explore and extract far more.”

Dennett – a legal justice graduate who has spent her profession in analysis and consultancy – was inspired to cease working with Shell after watching news footage of Extinction Insurrection local weather protesters urging the corporate’s workers to leave. The movement’s TruthTeller whistleblowing challenge encourages oil and gas employees to walk away from the industry.

The marketing consultant, who runs inner security surveys and is predicated in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to have the ability to stroll away and “many people working in fossil gasoline corporations just aren’t so lucky”.

She urged Shell’s executives to “look in the mirror and ask themselves in the event that they actually believe their imaginative and prescient for extra oil and gas extraction secures a protected future for humanity”.

In late 2020, a number of Shell executives in its clean energy sector left amid stories they have been pissed off 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 will be mentioned at the meeting the place the Dutch activist group Follow This can push for the company’s insurance policies to be extra per the Paris local weather accord. Shell’s board has informed traders to reject the group’s resolution that asks it to set extra stringent climate objectives.

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

The Shell chief executive, Ben van Beurden, may expertise an investor rebel in opposition to his £13.5m pay packet on the AGM after the investment adviser Pirc urged a vote in opposition to it.

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A Shell spokesperson said: “Be in no doubt, we're decided to ship on our global strategy to be a web zero firm by 2050 and thousands of our persons are working laborious to achieve this. We now have set targets for the brief, medium and long run, and have every intention of hitting them.

“We’re already investing billions of dollars in low-carbon vitality, although the world will still want oil and gas for many years to come in sectors that can’t be easily decarbonised.”

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

On Monday, the largest oil and gas producer in the North Sea spoke out towards a one-off levy, arguing it could result in the business approving fewer projects.

Harbour Power’s chief executive, Linda Cook, instructed the Monetary Times: “A higher tax burden will make it more challenging for brand spanking new oil and gas initiatives to meet investment hurdle rates, that means fewer initiatives can be sanctioned.

“This is at a time when business is being encouraged to extend home UK oil and fuel production and support an orderly energy transition.”

Harbour has told the government it plans to invest $6bn in 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 howdy” from the firm.