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

A senior security consultant has quit working with Shell after 11 years, accusing the fossil gasoline producer in a bombshell public video of causing “excessive harms” to the setting.

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

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

Dennett accused the oil and gas firm of “working past the design limits of our planetary systems” and “not putting environmental safety earlier than production”.

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

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

Dennett instructed the Guardian she “could not marry these conflicts with my conscience”, including: “I could not carry that any longer, and I’m ready to take care of the results.”

Shell was a “major client” of Dennett’s enterprise, which specialises in evaluating security procedures in high-risk industries together with oil and gasoline production. She began 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 a corporation 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 net zero, they aren't winding down on oil and fuel, however planning to discover and extract far more.”

Dennett – a legal justice graduate who has spent her profession in analysis and consultancy – was impressed to cease working with Shell after watching news footage of Extinction Rise up local weather protesters urging the company’s employees to leave. The motion’s TruthTeller whistleblowing venture encourages oil and gas workers to walk away from the business.

The consultant, who runs inner safety surveys and is predicated in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to be able to walk away and “many individuals working in fossil gasoline companies simply aren’t so lucky”.

She urged Shell’s executives to “look within the mirror and ask themselves if they actually consider their imaginative and prescient for extra oil and gas extraction secures a secure future for humanity”.

In late 2020, several Shell executives in its clear vitality sector left amid studies they had been pissed off at 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 might be mentioned on the assembly where the Dutch activist group Observe This will push for the corporate’s insurance policies to be extra consistent with the Paris local weather accord. Shell’s board has instructed buyers to reject the group’s decision that asks it to set more stringent climate targets.

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

The Shell chief executive, Ben van Beurden, might expertise an investor insurrection 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 little doubt, we are decided to deliver on our world technique to be a internet zero company by 2050 and 1000's of our people are working hard to realize this. We've got 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 energy, though the world will still need oil and gasoline for decades 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 payments after the energy industry 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 most important oil and gas producer in the North Sea spoke out towards a one-off levy, arguing it will result in the trade approving fewer tasks.

Harbour Power’s chief executive, Linda Prepare dinner, informed the Monetary Occasions: “A higher tax burden will make it tougher for new oil and gasoline initiatives to satisfy funding hurdle rates, which means fewer projects can be sanctioned.

“That is at a time when business is being inspired to extend domestic UK oil and gas manufacturing and support an orderly energy transition.”

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