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

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

Caroline Dennett claimed Shell had a “disregard for local weather 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 employees. In an accompanying video, posted on LinkedIn, she mentioned she had stop due to Shell’s “double-talk on local weather”.

Dennett accused the oil and gasoline agency of “operating beyond the design limits of our planetary programs” and “not placing environmental safety earlier than production”.

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

“They know that continued oil and gas extraction causes excessive harms, to our local weather, to our environment and to individuals. And no matter they say, 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 cope with the implications.”

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

“I can no longer work for an organization that ignores all the alarms and dismisses the dangers of local weather change and ecological collapse,” she mentioned. “As a result of, opposite to Shell’s public expressions round internet zero, they aren't 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 research and consultancy – was inspired to stop working with Shell after watching news footage of Extinction Riot climate protesters urging the company’s employees to go away. The motion’s TruthTeller whistleblowing challenge encourages oil and gasoline staff to walk away from the trade.

The guide, who runs inside safety surveys and relies in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to have the ability to stroll away and “many people working in fossil gasoline companies simply aren’t so lucky”.

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

In late 2020, several Shell executives in its clear power sector left amid studies 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 will probably be mentioned on the meeting the place the Dutch activist group Follow This can push for the corporate’s policies to be extra consistent with the Paris climate accord. Shell’s board has told investors to reject the group’s resolution that asks it to set extra stringent local weather goals.

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, could expertise an investor riot 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 question, we're determined to ship on our global technique to be a web zero firm by 2050 and thousands of our persons are working exhausting to achieve this. We've 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 vitality, though the world will still need oil and gasoline for decades to return in sectors that can’t be simply decarbonised.”

Shell additionally faces the prospect of a possible windfall tax to fund cuts to family payments after the energy trade reported bumper earnings fuelled by the rise in market prices, prompting opposition events to call on the government to herald a one-off levy.

On Monday, the biggest oil and gas producer in the North Sea spoke out in opposition to a one-off levy, arguing it will lead to the trade approving fewer initiatives.

Harbour Vitality’s chief government, Linda Cook, instructed the Financial Times: “A better tax burden will make it tougher for new oil and fuel tasks to fulfill funding hurdle charges, which means fewer initiatives will likely be sanctioned.

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

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