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

A senior safety advisor has stop working with Shell after 11 years, accusing the fossil gas 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 within the oil and gas business to “walk away while there’s nonetheless time”.

The executive, 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 mentioned she had quit because of Shell’s “double-talk on climate”.

Dennett accused the oil and fuel agency of “operating beyond the design limits of our planetary programs” and “not putting environmental safety before production”.

She mentioned: “Shell’s said safety ambition is to ‘do no harm’ – ‘Aim Zero’, they call it – and it sounds honourable but they're completely failing on it.

“They know that continued oil and gasoline extraction causes excessive harms, to our climate, to our surroundings and to individuals. And no matter they say, Shell is solely not winding down on fossil fuels.”

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

Shell was a “major client” of Dennett’s business, which specialises in evaluating security 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 industry.

“I can not work for a company that ignores all of the alarms and dismisses the dangers of climate change and ecological collapse,” she stated. “As a result of, contrary to Shell’s public expressions around net zero, they are not winding down on oil and gasoline, but planning to explore and extract rather more.”

Dennett – a legal justice graduate who has spent her profession in research and consultancy – was impressed to cease working with Shell after watching news footage of Extinction Rebel climate protesters urging the corporate’s employees to depart. The movement’s TruthTeller whistleblowing venture encourages oil and gasoline employees to stroll away from the trade.

The guide, who runs inner security surveys and relies in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to have the ability to walk away and “many people working in fossil gas firms simply aren’t so fortunate”.

She urged Shell’s executives to “look within the mirror and ask themselves if they really imagine their imaginative and prescient for extra oil and fuel extraction secures a safe future for humanity”.

In late 2020, several Shell executives in its clear energy sector left amid experiences they were frustrated at the pace 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 discussed at the assembly where the Dutch activist group Observe This can push for the corporate’s policies to be extra per the Paris climate accord. Shell’s board has instructed investors to reject the group’s decision that asks it to set more stringent climate goals.

The Shell investor Royal London has stated 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 rebel against his £13.5m pay packet at the AGM after the funding adviser Pirc urged a vote against it.

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A Shell spokesperson mentioned: “Be in little question, we're decided to deliver on our world strategy to be a web zero firm by 2050 and hundreds of our persons are working exhausting to attain this. Now we have set targets for the quick, medium and long run, and have every intention of hitting them.

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

Shell additionally faces the prospect of a potential windfall tax to fund cuts to household payments after the vitality trade reported bumper income fuelled by the rise in market prices, prompting opposition events to name on the federal government to herald 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 could result in the trade approving fewer projects.

Harbour Energy’s chief government, Linda Cook dinner, told the Monetary Occasions: “A better tax burden will make it tougher for brand spanking new oil and gasoline initiatives to satisfy investment hurdle rates, that means fewer initiatives will likely be sanctioned.

“That is at a time when industry is being encouraged to extend home UK oil and gasoline manufacturing and assist an orderly energy transition.”

Harbour has told the government it plans to invest $6bn in the North Sea over three years as industry makes its case in opposition to the tax. The Guardian revealed this month that Cook dinner had obtained a £4.6m “golden hi there” from the agency.