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 gasoline 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 gas business to “stroll away while there’s nonetheless time”.

The manager, who works for the independent 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 stated she had stop because of Shell’s “double-talk on climate”.

Dennett accused the oil and gasoline agency of “working past the design limits of our planetary systems” and “not placing environmental safety earlier than production”.

She mentioned: “Shell’s said security ambition is to ‘do no hurt’ – ‘Goal Zero’, they call it – and it sounds honourable however they're completely failing on it.

“They know that continued oil and gas extraction causes extreme harms, to our climate, to our environment and to individuals. And whatever 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 could not carry that any longer, and I’m ready to deal with the consequences.”

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

“I can now not work for a company that ignores all the alarms and dismisses the dangers of climate change and ecological collapse,” she said. “Because, opposite to Shell’s public expressions round web zero, they are not winding down on oil and gasoline, however planning to explore and extract much more.”

Dennett – a legal justice graduate who has spent her career in research and consultancy – was impressed to cease working with Shell after watching information footage of Extinction Insurrection climate protesters urging the company’s employees to depart. The movement’s TruthTeller whistleblowing mission encourages oil and fuel employees to walk away from the business.

The guide, who runs inside security surveys and is based in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to be able to stroll away and “many individuals working in fossil gasoline companies just aren’t so fortunate”.

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

In late 2020, a number of Shell executives in its clean energy sector left amid experiences they were pissed off at the pace 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 scale back emissions will be discussed at the assembly the place the Dutch activist group Comply with This may push for the corporate’s policies to be more according to the Paris climate accord. Shell’s board has informed traders to reject the group’s decision 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 government, Ben van Beurden, might expertise an investor rise up in opposition to 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 said: “Be in no doubt, we are decided to ship on our global strategy to be a net zero company by 2050 and thousands of our individuals are working onerous to achieve this. We now have set targets for the short, medium and long run, and have each intention of hitting them.

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

Shell additionally faces the prospect of a possible windfall tax to fund cuts to family payments after the energy business reported bumper income fuelled by the increase in market costs, prompting opposition parties to call on the government to usher in a one-off levy.

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

Harbour Vitality’s chief govt, Linda Prepare dinner, told the Monetary Occasions: “A higher tax burden will make it more difficult for new oil and gas projects to meet investment hurdle charges, meaning fewer initiatives will be sanctioned.

“That is at a time when trade is being inspired to extend home UK oil and fuel manufacturing and assist an orderly energy transition.”

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