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

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

Caroline Dennett claimed Shell had a “disregard for local weather change dangers” and urged others within the oil and gasoline trade to “stroll away while there’s nonetheless time”.

The manager, who works for the unbiased company 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 because of Shell’s “double-talk on local weather”.

Dennett accused the oil and fuel firm of “working past the design limits of our planetary programs” and “not putting environmental safety before manufacturing”.

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

“They know that continued oil and gasoline extraction causes extreme harms, to our climate, to our surroundings and to people. And no matter they are saying, Shell is simply not winding down on fossil fuels.”

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

Shell was a “main client” of Dennett’s enterprise, which specialises in evaluating safety procedures in high-risk industries together with oil and fuel production. 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 company that ignores all the alarms and dismisses the dangers of climate change and ecological collapse,” she said. “As a result of, contrary to Shell’s public expressions round internet zero, they aren't winding down on oil and gas, but planning to explore and extract much more.”

Dennett – a legal justice graduate who has spent her career in analysis and consultancy – was impressed to stop working with Shell after watching news footage of Extinction Rebellion climate protesters urging the company’s employees to go away. The movement’s TruthTeller whistleblowing mission encourages oil and gas employees to walk away from the industry.

The guide, who runs inner security surveys and relies in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to be able to stroll away and “many people working in fossil gasoline firms simply aren’t so fortunate”.

She urged Shell’s executives to “look within the mirror and ask themselves if they actually believe their vision for more oil and gas extraction secures a secure future for humanity”.

In late 2020, several Shell executives in its clear vitality 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 cut back emissions will probably be mentioned at the assembly the place the Dutch activist group Observe This will push for the company’s policies to be more in line with the Paris climate accord. Shell’s board has advised traders to reject the group’s decision that asks it to set more stringent local weather targets.

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

The Shell chief government, Ben van Beurden, might expertise an investor riot against his £13.5m pay packet on the AGM after the funding adviser Pirc urged a vote against it.

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A Shell spokesperson said: “Be in little question, we are decided to ship on our international strategy to be a web zero firm by 2050 and thousands of our people are working arduous to realize this. We've got set targets for the brief, medium and long run, and have every intention of hitting them.

“We’re already investing billions of dollars in low-carbon energy, though the world will still want oil and gas for many years to return in sectors that may’t be simply decarbonised.”

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

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

Harbour Energy’s chief executive, Linda Cook dinner, told the Financial Instances: “A better tax burden will make it more challenging for new oil and gas projects to fulfill funding hurdle charges, meaning fewer projects can be sanctioned.

“This is at a time when business is being inspired to increase domestic UK oil and fuel production and help an orderly power transition.”

Harbour has advised the government it plans to take a position $6bn in the North Sea over three years as industry makes its case towards the tax. The Guardian revealed this month that Cook dinner had acquired a £4.6m “golden hi there” from the agency.