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

A senior safety consultant has give up working with Shell after 11 years, accusing the fossil fuel producer in a bombshell public video of causing “extreme harms” to the surroundings.

Caroline Dennett claimed Shell had a “disregard for climate change risks” and urged others within the oil and gas trade to “walk away while there’s still time”.

The executive, 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 due to Shell’s “double-talk on climate”.

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

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

“They know that continued oil and gasoline extraction causes excessive harms, to our climate, to our environment and to folks. And no matter they are saying, Shell is just not winding down on fossil fuels.”

Dennett informed the Guardian she “couldn't marry these conflicts with my conscience”, including: “I could not carry that any longer, and I’m ready to take care of the implications.”

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

“I can not work for a company that ignores all of the alarms and dismisses the risks of climate change and ecological collapse,” she said. “As a result of, contrary to Shell’s public expressions round net zero, they don't seem to be winding down on oil and fuel, but planning to explore and extract much more.”

Dennett – a criminal justice graduate who has spent her career in analysis and consultancy – was inspired to cease working with Shell after watching news footage of Extinction Riot local weather protesters urging the corporate’s employees to leave. The movement’s TruthTeller whistleblowing mission encourages oil and gas employees to stroll away from the business.

The guide, who runs inside security surveys and is based in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to have the ability to walk away and “many individuals working in fossil gasoline firms just aren’t so fortunate”.

She urged Shell’s executives to “look in the mirror and ask themselves if they actually imagine their vision for more oil and gasoline extraction secures a protected future for humanity”.

In late 2020, several Shell executives in its clear vitality sector left amid experiences they have been annoyed on 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 reduce emissions will likely be discussed at the assembly the place the Dutch activist group Observe This may push for the corporate’s policies to be more according to the Paris climate accord. Shell’s board has instructed investors to reject the group’s decision that asks it to set extra stringent local weather targets.

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

The Shell chief govt, Ben van Beurden, may experience an investor revolt in opposition to his £13.5m pay packet on the AGM after the investment adviser Pirc urged a vote towards it.

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A Shell spokesperson mentioned: “Be in little question, we are decided to ship on our global strategy to be a internet zero firm by 2050 and thousands of our persons are working onerous to realize this. We've got set targets for the short, medium and long term, and have each intention of hitting them.

“We’re already investing billions of dollars in low-carbon power, although the world will nonetheless want oil and gasoline for many years to come back in sectors that can’t be easily decarbonised.”

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

On Monday, the biggest oil and gas producer in the North Sea spoke out against a one-off levy, arguing it might lead to the industry approving fewer tasks.

Harbour Power’s chief executive, Linda Cook, told the Financial Occasions: “A higher tax burden will make it more challenging for new oil and gas initiatives to meet investment hurdle charges, meaning fewer initiatives can be sanctioned.

“This is at a time when business is being encouraged to increase domestic UK oil and gas manufacturing and help an orderly energy transition.”

Harbour has instructed the federal government it plans to take a position $6bn in the North Sea over three years as business makes its case against the tax. The Guardian revealed this month that Cook had acquired a £4.6m “golden hey” from the firm.