Caroline Dennett has made some headlines.

For a decade she had worked as a self-employed safety consultant for the British oil company Shell.

Then the contradictions in dealing with global warming seemed too great for her, and she wrote in an e-mail that became public to the group's management and said in a much-noticed YouTube video that she would no longer be available for this task.

Shell spouts empty talk and fails on a planetary scale.

Media from the Guardian to the BBC reported.

Philip Krohn

Editor in business, responsible for "People and Business".

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Roland Lindner

Business correspondent in New York.

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"I cannot continue to work for a company that ignores all the alarm signals and does not take the risks of climate change and ecological collapse seriously," she said in her letter.

In the video she added: "Whatever you say, Shell is not shutting down fossil fuels." Shortly thereafter, the consultant gave an interview to the US Internet newspaper Vox.com.

Zero emissions not part of business plan

In this she was self-critical, but at least she managed to avert damage to employees through her work.

But to the extent that the international group has tried to find new production sites, she has become skeptical.

Climate neutrality is not an issue internally.

"It's unbelievable that nobody is really talking about it," she replied to a question from the journalist.

“The other day someone mentioned the goal of zero emissions by 2050.

But that was one person in eleven years out of more than 20,000 people.

That's amazing.” Only in press releases and on the website does the goal play a role.

Whether in the automotive industry or energy producers, whether in agriculture or the chemical industry - companies everywhere are preparing for what follows from the Paris climate agreement of 2015: the obligation of states to set greenhouse gas emissions to zero by the middle of the century.

Long-term transformation plans have been drawn up, which are to be adhered to despite the current crisis surrounding natural gas, which is intended as a transition.

But there is always irritating news from the mineral oil industry, which earns its money mainly from fossil fuels.

The New York Times reported in September, citing internal documents for a committee in the US Congress of oil industry executives who privately downplayed their companies' announcements of steps towards carbon neutrality and commitments to climate policy.

It said: A path to zero emissions has "nothing to do with our business plans," an Exxon manager recalled deleting references to the Paris Agreement from a manuscript so as not to create an obligation.

"Please do not give the impression that Shell intends to reduce carbon emissions to levels that make no business sense," said a statement from the British group, which gave up its dual headquarters in The Hague and London after a Dutch court ruled prompted