Shell marketing consultant quits, accusing firm of ‘extreme harms’ to surroundings | Shell

A senior safety guide has give up working with Shell after 11 years, accusing the fossil gas producer in a bombshell public video of causing “excessive harms” to the environment.

Caroline Dennett claimed Shell had a “disregard for local weather change risks” and urged others in the oil and gas industry to “walk away whereas there’s nonetheless time”.

The executive, who works for the unbiased agency Clout, ended her working relationship with Shell in an open letter to its executives and 1,400 employees. In an accompanying video, posted on LinkedIn, she stated she had give up due to Shell’s “double-talk on local weather”.

Dennett accused the oil and fuel agency of “operating beyond the design limits of our planetary methods” and “not placing environmental safety earlier than manufacturing”.

She said: “Shell’s acknowledged security ambition is to ‘do no harm’ – ‘Purpose Zero’, they name it – and it sounds honourable but they're utterly failing on it.

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

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

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

“I can not work for an organization that ignores all the alarms and dismisses the risks of local weather change and ecological collapse,” she mentioned. “As a result of, opposite to Shell’s public expressions around net zero, they are not winding down on oil and fuel, however planning to explore and extract way more.”

Dennett – a criminal justice graduate who has spent her profession in analysis and consultancy – was impressed to cease working with Shell after watching information footage of Extinction Insurrection climate protesters urging the corporate’s employees to depart. The motion’s TruthTeller whistleblowing challenge encourages oil and gasoline employees to stroll away from the trade.

The marketing consultant, who runs inner safety surveys and is based in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to have the ability to stroll away and “many individuals working in fossil gas companies just aren’t so lucky”.

She urged Shell’s executives to “look in the mirror and ask themselves in the event that they really believe their imaginative and prescient for extra oil and gasoline extraction secures a secure future for humanity”.

In late 2020, a number of Shell executives in its clean power sector left amid experiences they had been pissed off at the tempo of Shell’s shift towards greener fuels.

Her announcement comes on the eve of Shell’s AGM in London on Tuesday. Its plans to scale back emissions will probably be discussed at the assembly the place the Dutch activist group Observe This may push for the corporate’s insurance policies to be extra consistent with the Paris local weather accord. Shell’s board has informed investors to reject the group’s resolution that asks it to set more stringent climate goals.

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

The Shell chief executive, Ben van Beurden, could expertise an investor rebellion in opposition to 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 little question, we are decided to deliver on our world strategy to be a internet zero firm by 2050 and 1000's of our individuals are working hard to realize this. We have now 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 vitality, though the world will nonetheless need oil and gasoline for many years to come in sectors that can’t be easily decarbonised.”

Shell also faces the prospect of a potential windfall tax to fund cuts to household payments after the energy industry reported bumper income fuelled by the rise in market costs, prompting opposition events to call on the government to herald a one-off levy.

On Monday, the most important oil and fuel producer within the North Sea spoke out in opposition to a one-off levy, arguing it will lead to the industry approving fewer projects.

Harbour Power’s chief govt, Linda Cook dinner, informed the Monetary Instances: “A better tax burden will make it more challenging for brand spanking new oil and gas tasks to meet funding hurdle rates, that means fewer projects can be sanctioned.

“That is at a time when business is being encouraged to increase home UK oil and gasoline production and support an orderly power transition.”

Harbour has informed 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 hey” from the firm.