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

A senior safety consultant 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 setting.

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

The executive, 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 said she had quit due to Shell’s “double-talk on local weather”.

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

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

“They know that continued oil and gasoline 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 “couldn't marry these conflicts with my conscience”, including: “I couldn't carry that any longer, and I’m able to deal with the results.”

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

“I can now not work for an organization that ignores all the alarms and dismisses the risks of local weather change and ecological collapse,” she stated. “As a result of, contrary to Shell’s public expressions round net zero, they aren't winding down on oil and gas, but planning to explore and extract much more.”

Dennett – a felony justice graduate who has spent her career in analysis and consultancy – was inspired to cease working with Shell after watching news footage of Extinction Rebellion climate protesters urging the corporate’s staff to leave. The motion’s TruthTeller whistleblowing undertaking encourages oil and gas staff to walk away from the industry.

The consultant, who runs internal security surveys and is predicated in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to have the ability to walk away and “many people working in fossil gasoline companies just aren’t so fortunate”.

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

In late 2020, several Shell executives in its clear power sector left amid studies they have been annoyed at the tempo of Shell’s shift in direction of greener fuels.

Her announcement comes on the eve of Shell’s AGM in London on Tuesday. Its plans to cut back emissions will be mentioned on the assembly where the Dutch activist group Observe It will push for the corporate’s policies to be more according to the Paris local weather accord. Shell’s board has advised investors 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 firm’s local weather transition proposals.

The Shell chief govt, Ben van Beurden, may experience an investor rebel towards his £13.5m pay packet on 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 are decided to ship on our world strategy to be a internet zero company by 2050 and hundreds of our persons are working exhausting to attain this. We have now set targets for the quick, medium and long term, and have each intention of hitting them.

“We’re already investing billions of dollars in low-carbon vitality, although the world will still need oil and gasoline for many years to come in sectors that can’t be simply decarbonised.”

Shell also faces the prospect of a potential windfall tax to fund cuts to household payments after the power trade reported bumper profits fuelled by the rise in market costs, prompting opposition events to call on the government to herald a one-off levy.

On Monday, the biggest oil and fuel producer in the North Sea spoke out in opposition to a one-off levy, arguing it could result in the industry approving fewer projects.

Harbour Power’s chief government, Linda Cook dinner, advised the Monetary Occasions: “A higher tax burden will make it tougher for brand spanking new oil and gasoline tasks to satisfy funding hurdle rates, meaning fewer projects shall be sanctioned.

“That is at a time when industry is being inspired to increase home UK oil and gasoline production and assist an orderly vitality transition.”

Harbour has told the government it plans to take a position $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 had received a £4.6m “golden hiya” from the agency.