(LONDON) A Shell consultant quit with a bang on Monday, accusing the British oil giant of knowingly causing ‘extreme damage’ to the environment, while HSBC suspended an executive who downplayed the impact of climate change .
Posted at 10:17 a.m.
“I am ending my eleven-year relationship as a security consultant for Shell,” Caroline Dennett wrote on LinkedIn on Monday, calling on other employees of the sector giant to do the same.
“Shell’s complete lack of concern for the risk caused by climate change means that they are completely failing in their ambitions to transition to carbon neutrality,” she argues.
“Shell is fully aware that their ongoing oil and gas extraction and expansion projects are causing extreme damage to our climate, our environment, nature and people,” she argues.
Contrary to public statements about carbon neutrality, [le groupe] does not decrease its oil and gas production, but plans to explore and extract much more.
Former consultant Caroline Dennett
“We must end all extraction projects immediately and quickly transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy,” Mrs.me Dennett.
An institutional investor, Royal London Asset Management, criticized Shell’s climate transition plan last week, saying it did not reduce oil consumption enough.
“We have set short, medium and long term objectives and intend to achieve them. We are already investing billions of dollars in low-carbon energy, even though the world will still need oil and gas for decades to come in sectors that cannot easily be decarbonized,” said a Shell spokeswoman. the AFP.
Shell is holding its general meeting of shareholders on Tuesday and environmental organizations such as Money Rebellion have planned to demonstrate to denounce the climate inaction of the oil “major”, after having disrupted the general meetings of the banks HSBC, Barclays and Standard Chartered in recent weeks.
the FinancialTimes wrote on Sunday, citing sources familiar with the matter, that HSBC suspended Stuart Kirk, global head of responsible investing in the asset management division, after he accused central bankers and politicians of exaggerating the impact of climate change.
Spokespersons declined to comment on the information on Monday.
Sunday, Noel Quinn, chief executive of the group, had reacted by saying that the remarks made by Mr. Kirk during a conference organized by the FT did not reflect the strategy of the group.
Mr Kirk said, among other things, according to the FT: “What does it matter if Miami is six meters under water in 100 years? Amsterdam has been under water for ages, and it’s a very nice place. We will adapt. »
The environmental groups Bank on our Future and Global Witness were outraged by “shocking” and “inaccurate” remarks, particularly from the bank’s responsible investment director, saying they reflected the state of mind in finance, and calling on governments to legislate.
Denouncing “a whole sector that continues to finance deforestation, fossil fuels and climate collapse”, Global Witness notably accuses HSBC of being “one of the worst” banks.
“We need governments to legislate and prevent finance from supporting companies that destroy the climate”, concludes Mr.me Oakeshott.