Shell advisor quits, accusing firm of ‘excessive harms’ to atmosphere | Shell

A senior safety marketing 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 atmosphere.

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

The manager, who works for the impartial agency 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 quit because of Shell’s “double-talk on climate”.

Dennett accused the oil and gasoline firm of “operating beyond the design limits of our planetary techniques” and “not putting environmental security earlier than production”.

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

“They know that continued oil and gas extraction causes extreme harms, to our climate, to the environment and to individuals. And no matter they are saying, Shell is simply not winding down on fossil fuels.”

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

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

“I can no longer work for an organization that ignores all the alarms and dismisses the risks of local weather change and ecological collapse,” she said. “Because, contrary to Shell’s public expressions around internet zero, they are not winding down on oil and gasoline, but planning to discover and extract far more.”

Dennett – a legal justice graduate who has spent her career in analysis and consultancy – was impressed to cease working with Shell after watching information footage of Extinction Rebel local weather protesters urging the corporate’s workers to depart. The movement’s TruthTeller whistleblowing project encourages oil and gas workers to stroll 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 gas companies simply aren’t so fortunate”.

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

In late 2020, several Shell executives in its clean vitality sector left amid studies they were 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 reduce emissions will likely be mentioned on the assembly the place the Dutch activist group Follow It will push for the corporate’s policies to be more in keeping with the Paris local weather accord. Shell’s board has advised 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 climate transition proposals.

The Shell chief govt, Ben van Beurden, might expertise an investor rebellion 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 determined to ship on our world strategy to be a web zero firm by 2050 and 1000's of our persons are working arduous to realize this. We've got 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 vitality, although the world will nonetheless need oil and gasoline for many years to come in sectors that may’t be easily decarbonised.”

Shell also faces the prospect of a possible windfall tax to fund cuts to household payments after the energy trade reported bumper earnings 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 fuel producer within the North Sea spoke out against a one-off levy, arguing it would lead to the trade approving fewer initiatives.

Harbour Power’s chief govt, Linda Cook dinner, told the Monetary Instances: “The next tax burden will make it tougher for new oil and fuel initiatives to meet investment hurdle charges, meaning fewer initiatives can be sanctioned.

“This is at a time when trade is being inspired to increase domestic UK oil and gasoline production and help an orderly vitality transition.”

Harbour has instructed the government it plans to take a position $6bn within the North Sea over three years as trade makes its case towards the tax. The Guardian revealed this month that Prepare dinner had acquired a £4.6m “golden hi there” from the agency.