Shell guide quits, accusing firm of ‘excessive harms’ to surroundings | Shell

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

Caroline Dennett claimed Shell had a “disregard for local weather change risks” and urged others within the oil and gas business to “stroll away whereas there’s nonetheless time”.

The manager, who works for the unbiased company Clout, ended her working relationship with Shell in an open letter to its executives and 1,400 workers. In an accompanying video, posted on LinkedIn, she mentioned she had stop due to Shell’s “double-talk on climate”.

Dennett accused the oil and gasoline agency of “working beyond the design limits of our planetary systems” and “not putting environmental security before production”.

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

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

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

Shell was a “main consumer” of Dennett’s enterprise, which specialises in evaluating safety procedures in high-risk industries together with oil and fuel production. She started working with Shell within the aftermath of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, which rocked the industry.

“I can no longer work for a company that ignores all of the alarms and dismisses the risks of climate change and ecological collapse,” she stated. “Because, contrary to Shell’s public expressions around web zero, they aren't winding down on oil and gas, however planning to discover and extract rather more.”

Dennett – a criminal justice graduate who has spent her profession in research and consultancy – was impressed to cease working with Shell after watching news footage of Extinction Riot local weather protesters urging the corporate’s staff to depart. The motion’s TruthTeller whistleblowing project encourages oil and fuel workers to walk away from the trade.

The consultant, who runs inner safety surveys and is based in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to be able to stroll away and “many people working in fossil gas firms just aren’t so lucky”.

She urged Shell’s executives to “look in the mirror and ask themselves if they actually believe their vision for more oil and fuel extraction secures a safe future for humanity”.

In late 2020, a number of Shell executives in its clear power sector left amid reviews they were pissed off at the tempo 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 scale back emissions can be mentioned on the meeting the place the Dutch activist group Follow This will push for the company’s policies to be more consistent with the Paris local weather accord. Shell’s board has told traders to reject the group’s decision that asks it to set extra stringent climate targets.

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

The Shell chief executive, Ben van Beurden, could experience an investor insurrection against his £13.5m pay packet at the AGM after the investment adviser Pirc urged a vote against it.

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A Shell spokesperson said: “Be in little doubt, we are decided to ship on our world technique to be a web zero company by 2050 and 1000's of our individuals are working onerous to realize this. We now have set targets for the brief, medium and long term, 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 gasoline for decades to come in sectors that can’t be easily decarbonised.”

Shell additionally faces the prospect of a potential windfall tax to fund cuts to household payments after the vitality business reported bumper income fuelled by the increase in market prices, prompting opposition parties to name on the government to bring in a one-off levy.

On Monday, the largest oil and gasoline producer in the North Sea spoke out in opposition to a one-off levy, arguing it might lead to the business approving fewer initiatives.

Harbour Vitality’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 projects to meet funding hurdle rates, meaning fewer projects shall be sanctioned.

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

Harbour has instructed the government it plans to take a position $6bn within the North Sea over three years as business makes its case in opposition to the tax. The Guardian revealed this month that Cook dinner had obtained a £4.6m “golden hello” from the agency.