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

A senior safety consultant has quit working with Shell after 11 years, accusing the fossil gasoline 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 within the oil and gas business to “stroll away whereas there’s nonetheless time”.

The chief, who works for the impartial agency Clout, ended her working relationship with Shell in an open letter to its executives and 1,400 staff. In an accompanying video, posted on LinkedIn, she said she had quit due to Shell’s “double-talk on climate”.

Dennett accused the oil and gasoline firm of “working past the design limits of our planetary programs” and “not putting environmental security before manufacturing”.

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

“They know that continued oil and gas extraction causes extreme harms, to our local weather, to the environment and to folks. And whatever they are saying, Shell is simply not winding down on fossil fuels.”

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

Shell was a “main consumer” of Dennett’s business, which specialises in evaluating security procedures in high-risk industries including oil and gasoline manufacturing. She started 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 a company that ignores all of the alarms and dismisses the risks of climate change and ecological collapse,” she stated. “As a result of, opposite to Shell’s public expressions round web zero, they don't seem to be winding down on oil and gas, however planning to discover and extract much more.”

Dennett – a legal justice graduate who has spent her career in research and consultancy – was impressed to stop working with Shell after watching information footage of Extinction Rebellion local weather protesters urging the corporate’s workers to depart. The movement’s TruthTeller whistleblowing project encourages oil and gas employees to walk away from the business.

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

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

In late 2020, a number of Shell executives in its clean vitality sector left amid studies they have been annoyed on 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 reduce emissions will probably be discussed on the meeting the place the Dutch activist group Follow This may push for the corporate’s insurance policies to be more per the Paris local weather accord. Shell’s board has instructed traders to reject the group’s resolution that asks it to set extra stringent local weather goals.

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

The Shell chief govt, Ben van Beurden, may expertise an investor rebel towards his £13.5m pay packet on the AGM after the investment adviser Pirc urged a vote in opposition to it.

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A Shell spokesperson said: “Be in no doubt, we're determined to deliver on our world strategy to be a web zero firm by 2050 and thousands of our people are working hard to realize this. We now have set targets for the brief, medium and long run, and have each intention of hitting them.

“We’re already investing billions of dollars in low-carbon energy, though the world will still want oil and fuel for many years to come in sectors that may’t be simply decarbonised.”

Shell also faces the prospect of a possible windfall tax to fund cuts to household payments after the power industry reported bumper profits fuelled by the increase in market costs, prompting opposition parties to name on the government to herald a one-off levy.

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

Harbour Vitality’s chief executive, Linda Prepare dinner, instructed the Financial Occasions: “A better tax burden will make it more difficult for brand new oil and gasoline projects to satisfy investment hurdle charges, which means fewer tasks will be sanctioned.

“This is at a time when industry is being inspired to extend domestic UK oil and gasoline manufacturing and assist an orderly vitality transition.”

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