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

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

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

The chief, 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 said she had give up because of Shell’s “double-talk on local weather”.

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

She stated: “Shell’s acknowledged security ambition is to ‘do no hurt’ – ‘Goal Zero’, they call it – and it sounds honourable however they are utterly failing on it.

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

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

Shell was a “major consumer” of Dennett’s business, which specialises in evaluating security procedures in high-risk industries together with oil and gasoline 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 of the alarms and dismisses the risks of climate change and ecological collapse,” she mentioned. “As a result of, opposite to Shell’s public expressions around internet zero, they are not winding down on oil and fuel, however planning to discover and extract far more.”

Dennett – a legal justice graduate who has spent her profession in research and consultancy – was impressed to cease working with Shell after watching information footage of Extinction Insurrection local weather protesters urging the corporate’s workers to depart. The motion’s TruthTeller whistleblowing mission encourages oil and gas workers to stroll away from the industry.

The guide, who runs inner safety surveys and is based in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to be able to walk away and “many people working in fossil fuel corporations just aren’t so lucky”.

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

In late 2020, a number of Shell executives in its clean energy sector left amid experiences they have been pissed off 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 can be discussed on the meeting where the Dutch activist group Comply with This can push for the company’s policies to be extra in line with the Paris local weather accord. Shell’s board has advised traders to reject the group’s decision that asks it to set more stringent climate targets.

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

The Shell chief government, Ben van Beurden, could experience an investor revolt against 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 said: “Be in little doubt, we are determined to deliver on our international technique to be a net zero company by 2050 and thousands of our persons are working hard to achieve this. We've got set targets for the quick, medium and long term, 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 gasoline for decades to come in sectors that may’t be simply decarbonised.”

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

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

Harbour Vitality’s chief government, Linda Cook, advised the Monetary Times: “A better tax burden will make it more difficult for brand spanking new oil and gasoline projects to fulfill funding hurdle charges, which means fewer initiatives will probably be sanctioned.

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

Harbour has advised the government it plans to take a position $6bn within the North Sea over three years as industry makes its case in opposition to the tax. The Guardian revealed this month that Cook dinner had received a £4.6m “golden good day” from the firm.