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

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

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

The executive, who works for the impartial 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 stated she had quit because of Shell’s “double-talk on climate”.

Dennett accused the oil and gasoline agency of “operating past the design limits of our planetary techniques” and “not placing environmental safety earlier than manufacturing”.

She said: “Shell’s stated safety ambition is to ‘do no hurt’ – ‘Objective Zero’, they name it – and it sounds honourable however they're utterly 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 solely not winding down on fossil fuels.”

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

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

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

Dennett – a prison justice graduate who has spent her profession in analysis and consultancy – was impressed to cease working with Shell after watching information footage of Extinction Rebellion local weather protesters urging the corporate’s workers to leave. The motion’s TruthTeller whistleblowing challenge encourages oil and gas staff to stroll away from the trade.

The guide, who runs inner safety surveys and relies in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to be able to stroll away and “many individuals working in fossil gas corporations just aren’t so fortunate”.

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

In late 2020, several Shell executives in its clear vitality sector left amid reviews they were annoyed on the pace 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 be discussed on the meeting the place the Dutch activist group Follow It will push for the company’s insurance policies to be extra consistent with the Paris local weather accord. Shell’s board has told buyers to reject the group’s resolution that asks it to set more stringent local weather objectives.

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

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

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A Shell spokesperson stated: “Be in little question, we are decided to deliver on our international strategy to be a net zero firm by 2050 and 1000's of our people are working hard to attain this. Now we have set targets for the short, medium and long run, and have each intention of hitting them.

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

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

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

Harbour Vitality’s chief government, Linda Prepare dinner, advised the Financial Occasions: “A higher tax burden will make it more challenging for new oil and fuel projects to fulfill funding hurdle rates, meaning fewer initiatives will be sanctioned.

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

Harbour has advised the government it plans to speculate $6bn in the North Sea over three years as industry makes its case against the tax. The Guardian revealed this month that Cook had received a £4.6m “golden whats up” from the agency.