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

A senior safety guide has give up working with Shell after 11 years, accusing the fossil fuel producer in a bombshell public video of causing “extreme harms” to the atmosphere.

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

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

Dennett accused the oil and gasoline firm of “operating beyond the design limits of our planetary techniques” and “not placing environmental safety earlier than manufacturing”.

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

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

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

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

“I can now not work for an organization that ignores all of the alarms and dismisses the risks of climate change and ecological collapse,” she said. “Because, opposite to Shell’s public expressions round net zero, they don't seem to be winding down on oil and gasoline, but planning to explore and extract much more.”

Dennett – a legal justice graduate who has spent her profession in research and consultancy – was impressed to stop working with Shell after watching news footage of Extinction Rebellion climate protesters urging the corporate’s workers to go away. The movement’s TruthTeller whistleblowing challenge encourages oil and fuel employees to walk away from the business.

The marketing consultant, who runs internal security surveys and relies in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to have the ability to walk away and “many individuals working in fossil gasoline corporations just aren’t so lucky”.

She urged Shell’s executives to “look within the mirror and ask themselves in the event that they actually consider their vision for extra 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 were frustrated on 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 on the assembly the place the Dutch activist group Follow This may push for the company’s insurance policies to be more according to the Paris local weather accord. Shell’s board has told buyers to reject the group’s decision that asks it to set more stringent climate 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, could experience an investor riot against 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 little question, we are determined to deliver on our international strategy to be a web zero firm by 2050 and 1000's of our individuals are working hard 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, though the world will nonetheless need oil and fuel for many years to come back in sectors that may’t be easily decarbonised.”

Shell additionally faces the prospect of a potential windfall tax to fund cuts to family bills after the vitality industry reported bumper earnings 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 most important oil and fuel producer within the North Sea spoke out towards a one-off levy, arguing it would lead to the trade approving fewer projects.

Harbour Vitality’s chief government, Linda Prepare dinner, instructed the Financial Occasions: “A better tax burden will make it more challenging for brand new oil and gasoline initiatives to fulfill funding hurdle charges, meaning fewer tasks might be sanctioned.

“This is at a time when business is being inspired to increase domestic UK oil and gasoline production and support an orderly vitality transition.”

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