A senior safety consultant who has worked for Shell for 11 years has publicly quit her role over concerns about the environmental impact of the company’s operations on climate.

Caroline Dennett who is the Director for the independent agency Clout Ltd, allegedly sent a mass email to more than a thousand employees including Ben van Beurden, Chief Executive Officer of the company.

She claimed Shell is causing “extreme harm” to nature, people and the planet and she can no longer work for them.

In her email, she stated: “Contrary to Shell’s public expressions around net zero and as most of you will know from the inside, Shell is not winding down oil and gas, but planning to explore and extract much more.”

Caroline Dennett said: “I’d been uncomfortable with Shell’s disregard for growing climate change risks for a while.”

Ms Dennett said she was inspired by protests organised by Extinction Rebellion.

She said: “When I saw news footage of Extinction Rebellion inviting anyone at Shell to jump ship and offering support through its TruthTeller project, it motivated me to take action. I hope many more can find a way to do the same.”

The consultant added: “I have surveyed thousands of Shell employees and contractors around the world to help keep the ‘oil in the pipe’ and prevent harm to people.

“I hope through this work I have helped avoid accidents and spills.”

A Shell spokesperson told ELN: “Be in no doubt, we are determined to deliver on our global strategy to be a net zero company by 2050 and thousands of our people are working hard to achieve this.

“We have set targets for the short, medium and long term, and have every intention of hitting them. We’re already investing billions of dollars in low carbon energy, although the world will still need oil and gas for decades to come in sectors that can’t be easily decarbonised.”