Shell guide quits, accusing firm of ‘excessive harms’ to setting | Shell

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

Caroline Dennett claimed Shell had a “disregard for local weather change dangers” and urged others within the oil and fuel trade to “walk away while there’s nonetheless time”.

The executive, 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 stop because of Shell’s “double-talk on local weather”.

Dennett accused the oil and gasoline agency of “working past the design limits of our planetary programs” and “not placing environmental safety before manufacturing”.

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

“They know that continued oil and fuel extraction causes extreme harms, to our climate, to our surroundings and to individuals. And no matter they are saying, Shell is simply not winding down on fossil fuels.”

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

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

“I can no longer work for an organization that ignores all of 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 around internet zero, they are not winding down on oil and fuel, however planning to explore and extract rather 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 Riot local weather protesters urging the corporate’s staff to depart. The motion’s TruthTeller whistleblowing mission encourages oil and gasoline employees to stroll away from the business.

The guide, who runs inner security surveys and relies in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to be able to walk away and “many individuals working in fossil gasoline firms simply aren’t so fortunate”.

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

In late 2020, a number of Shell executives in its clear power sector left amid experiences they had been frustrated 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 will probably be discussed at the assembly where the Dutch activist group Observe This will push for the company’s insurance policies to be more in line with the Paris climate accord. Shell’s board has told investors to reject the group’s resolution that asks it to set more stringent climate objectives.

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

The Shell chief executive, Ben van Beurden, might expertise an investor insurrection towards his £13.5m pay packet at the AGM after the investment adviser Pirc urged a vote towards it.

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A Shell spokesperson said: “Be in no doubt, we're decided to deliver on our global strategy to be a net zero firm by 2050 and hundreds of our people are working laborious to attain this. We have set targets for the short, medium and long run, and have every intention of hitting them.

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

Shell also faces the prospect of a possible windfall tax to fund cuts to household bills after the power business reported bumper income fuelled by the rise in market prices, prompting opposition events to name on the government to bring in a one-off levy.

On Monday, the most important oil and gasoline producer in the North Sea spoke out towards a one-off levy, arguing it will result in the business approving fewer tasks.

Harbour Power’s chief government, Linda Cook, instructed the Financial Occasions: “A higher tax burden will make it tougher for brand new oil and gasoline tasks to meet funding hurdle charges, meaning fewer projects might be sanctioned.

“This is at a time when business is being encouraged to extend home UK oil and gasoline production and help an orderly energy transition.”

Harbour has told the government it plans to take a position $6bn within the North Sea over three years as trade makes its case against the tax. The Guardian revealed this month that Prepare dinner had acquired a £4.6m “golden whats up” from the firm.