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

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

Caroline Dennett claimed Shell had a “disregard for climate change risks” and urged others in the oil and fuel trade to “stroll away whereas there’s nonetheless time”.

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

Dennett accused the oil and gas firm of “operating beyond the design limits of our planetary techniques” and “not placing environmental security before production”.

She mentioned: “Shell’s stated security ambition is to ‘do no hurt’ – ‘Purpose Zero’, they call it – and it sounds honourable but they're fully failing on it.

“They know that continued oil and gas extraction causes extreme harms, to our local weather, to our surroundings and to folks. And whatever they are saying, Shell is just 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 take care of the implications.”

Shell was a “major client” of Dennett’s enterprise, which specialises in evaluating security procedures in high-risk industries together with oil and gasoline production. She started working with Shell in the aftermath of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, which rocked the industry.

“I can now not work for an organization that ignores all the alarms and dismisses the dangers of climate change and ecological collapse,” she stated. “As a result of, opposite to Shell’s public expressions round net zero, they are not winding down on oil and gas, but planning to discover and extract far 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 Riot local weather protesters urging the company’s employees to depart. The motion’s TruthTeller whistleblowing challenge encourages oil and gas staff to stroll away from the trade.

The marketing consultant, who runs inside safety surveys and relies in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to have the ability to walk away and “many people working in fossil fuel companies simply aren’t so fortunate”.

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

In late 2020, several Shell executives in its clean vitality sector left amid reports they had been pissed off on 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 likely be mentioned at the meeting where the Dutch activist group Comply with This can push for the corporate’s policies to be extra per the Paris local weather accord. Shell’s board has instructed traders to reject the group’s resolution that asks it to set extra stringent local weather goals.

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

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

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A Shell spokesperson mentioned: “Be in little question, we are determined to ship on our world strategy to be a net zero company by 2050 and 1000's of our persons are working exhausting to attain this. Now we have set targets for the quick, medium and long term, and have each intention of hitting them.

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

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

On Monday, the biggest oil and gasoline producer within the North Sea spoke out towards a one-off levy, arguing it will lead to the industry approving fewer projects.

Harbour Vitality’s chief govt, Linda Cook, informed the Monetary Times: “A higher tax burden will make it tougher for brand spanking new oil and gasoline projects to fulfill investment hurdle charges, which means fewer projects shall be sanctioned.

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

Harbour has instructed the federal government it plans to invest $6bn within the North Sea over three years as business makes its case towards the tax. The Guardian revealed this month that Cook had received a £4.6m “golden hello” from the agency.