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

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

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

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

Dennett accused the oil and gas firm of “operating beyond the design limits of our planetary programs” and “not placing environmental safety before manufacturing”.

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

“They know that continued oil and fuel extraction causes extreme harms, to our local weather, to our environment and to individuals. And no matter 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 couldn't carry that any longer, and I’m able to cope with the consequences.”

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

“I can not work for a corporation that ignores all the alarms and dismisses the risks of local weather change and ecological collapse,” she mentioned. “As a result of, opposite to Shell’s public expressions round internet zero, they are not winding down on oil and gas, however planning to discover and extract much more.”

Dennett – a prison justice graduate who has spent her profession in research and consultancy – was inspired to cease working with Shell after watching information footage of Extinction Rebel climate protesters urging the company’s workers to leave. The motion’s TruthTeller whistleblowing project encourages oil and fuel employees to walk away from the industry.

The advisor, who runs internal safety surveys and is based in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to have the ability to stroll away and “many individuals working in fossil gasoline firms just aren’t so lucky”.

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

In late 2020, a number of Shell executives in its clean power sector left amid reports they had been 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 can be discussed on the meeting where the Dutch activist group Observe This may push for the corporate’s insurance policies to be extra in line with the Paris climate accord. Shell’s board has advised buyers to reject the group’s decision that asks it to set more stringent local weather targets.

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

The Shell chief government, Ben van Beurden, might experience an investor riot in opposition to 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 stated: “Be in little question, we're determined to deliver on our global strategy to be a net zero firm by 2050 and thousands of our persons are working hard to realize this. We have now set targets for the quick, medium and long term, and have every intention of hitting them.

“We’re already investing billions of dollars in low-carbon vitality, although the world will nonetheless want oil and gasoline for decades to come in sectors that may’t be easily decarbonised.”

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

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

Harbour Vitality’s chief government, Linda Cook dinner, told the Financial Times: “A better tax burden will make it more challenging for brand spanking new oil and fuel tasks to meet funding hurdle rates, meaning fewer initiatives will be sanctioned.

“This is at a time when trade is being inspired to increase home UK oil and gas manufacturing and help an orderly vitality transition.”

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