Shell marketing consultant quits, accusing agency of ‘excessive harms’ to environment | Shell

A senior safety guide has quit working with Shell after 11 years, accusing the fossil fuel producer in a bombshell public video of inflicting “excessive harms” to the surroundings.

Caroline Dennett claimed Shell had a “disregard for local weather change risks” and urged others within the oil and gasoline industry to “walk away whereas there’s still 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 workers. In an accompanying video, posted on LinkedIn, she said she had quit because of Shell’s “double-talk on climate”.

Dennett accused the oil and gasoline agency of “working beyond the design limits of our planetary systems” and “not putting environmental safety earlier than production”.

She stated: “Shell’s stated safety ambition is to ‘do no harm’ – ‘Purpose Zero’, they name it – and it sounds honourable however they're completely failing on it.

“They know that continued oil and fuel extraction causes excessive harms, to our climate, to the environment and to people. And no matter they say, Shell is solely not winding down on fossil fuels.”

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

Shell was a “main client” of Dennett’s business, which specialises in evaluating safety procedures in high-risk industries including oil and gasoline manufacturing. She began working with Shell within the aftermath of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, which rocked the business.

“I can no longer work for a corporation that ignores all the alarms and dismisses the risks of climate change and ecological collapse,” she said. “Because, opposite to Shell’s public expressions round internet zero, they don't seem to be winding down on oil and gas, however planning to explore and extract way more.”

Dennett – a felony 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 go away. The motion’s TruthTeller whistleblowing venture encourages oil and fuel staff to walk away from the industry.

The guide, who runs inner safety surveys and is predicated in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to be able to stroll away and “many individuals working in fossil fuel companies simply aren’t so fortunate”.

She urged Shell’s executives to “look in the mirror and ask themselves if they actually consider their vision for extra oil and gas extraction secures a safe future for humanity”.

In late 2020, a number of Shell executives in its clear power sector left amid experiences they had been frustrated at the tempo of Shell’s shift in direction of 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 meeting the place the Dutch activist group Observe This will push for the company’s policies to be extra consistent with the Paris climate accord. Shell’s board has instructed buyers to reject the group’s resolution that asks it to set extra stringent local weather goals.

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

The Shell chief government, Ben van Beurden, might expertise an investor revolt in opposition to his £13.5m pay packet at the AGM after the funding adviser Pirc urged a vote in opposition to it.

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A Shell spokesperson stated: “Be in little doubt, we are determined to ship on our international technique to be a internet zero company by 2050 and thousands of our people are working exhausting to achieve this. We now have set targets for the quick, medium and long run, and have each intention of hitting them.

“We’re already investing billions of dollars in low-carbon energy, although the world will still need oil and gasoline for many years to return in sectors that can’t be easily decarbonised.”

Shell also faces the prospect of a possible windfall tax to fund cuts to family bills after the vitality industry reported bumper profits fuelled by the rise in market costs, prompting opposition parties to call on the federal government to bring in a one-off levy.

On Monday, the largest oil and fuel producer within the North Sea spoke out against a one-off levy, arguing it would lead to the trade approving fewer initiatives.

Harbour Energy’s chief government, Linda Prepare dinner, told the Financial Times: “A higher tax burden will make it tougher for new oil and gasoline tasks to satisfy funding hurdle rates, meaning fewer projects will be sanctioned.

“That is at a time when trade is being encouraged to extend home UK oil and gas production and assist an orderly energy transition.”

Harbour has told the federal government it plans to speculate $6bn in the North Sea over three years as trade makes its case towards the tax. The Guardian revealed this month that Prepare dinner had received a £4.6m “golden howdy” from the firm.