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

A senior safety advisor has give up working with Shell after 11 years, accusing the fossil gas producer in a bombshell public video of inflicting “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 “walk away whereas there’s still time”.

The executive, who works for the impartial 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 local weather”.

Dennett accused the oil and gas firm of “working beyond the design limits of our planetary systems” and “not placing environmental security before production”.

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

“They know that continued oil and fuel extraction causes excessive harms, to our climate, to our environment and to people. And no matter they say, Shell is simply not winding down on fossil fuels.”

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

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

“I can now not work for a corporation that ignores all the alarms and dismisses the dangers of local weather change and ecological collapse,” she stated. “As a result of, contrary to Shell’s public expressions round internet zero, they are not winding down on oil and fuel, however planning to explore and extract far more.”

Dennett – a prison justice graduate who has spent her career in research and consultancy – was impressed to cease working with Shell after watching information footage of Extinction Riot climate protesters urging the corporate’s workers to leave. The motion’s TruthTeller whistleblowing venture encourages oil and fuel employees to stroll away from the business.

The consultant, who runs inner safety surveys and relies in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to have the ability to walk away and “many individuals working in fossil gasoline companies simply aren’t so fortunate”.

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

In late 2020, a number of Shell executives in its clear energy sector left amid reviews they have been pissed off on the pace of Shell’s shift towards greener fuels.

Her announcement comes on the eve of Shell’s AGM in London on Tuesday. Its plans to reduce emissions can be discussed at the meeting where the Dutch activist group Comply with It will push for the company’s policies to be extra in line with the Paris local weather accord. Shell’s board has advised buyers to reject the group’s resolution that asks it to set more stringent climate goals.

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

The Shell chief executive, Ben van Beurden, may experience an investor rebellion in opposition to his £13.5m pay packet on the AGM after the funding adviser Pirc urged a vote in opposition to it.

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A Shell spokesperson mentioned: “Be in no doubt, we are determined to deliver on our world strategy to be a internet zero firm by 2050 and thousands of our people are working exhausting to achieve this. We've got set targets for the short, medium and long term, and have each intention of hitting them.

“We’re already investing billions of dollars in low-carbon energy, though the world will nonetheless want oil and gas for decades to come back in sectors that can’t be easily decarbonised.”

Shell additionally faces the prospect of a potential windfall tax to fund cuts to family bills after the power trade 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 gasoline producer in the North Sea spoke out towards a one-off levy, arguing it will lead to the business approving fewer tasks.

Harbour Power’s chief government, Linda Cook, informed the Monetary Instances: “The next tax burden will make it more difficult for brand new oil and gas initiatives to fulfill funding hurdle rates, that means fewer initiatives might be sanctioned.

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

Harbour has informed the government it plans to speculate $6bn in the North Sea over three years as industry makes its case against the tax. The Guardian revealed this month that Prepare dinner had obtained a £4.6m “golden good day” from the agency.