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

A senior security marketing consultant has stop working with Shell after 11 years, accusing the fossil gas producer in a bombshell public video of causing “excessive harms” to the surroundings.

Caroline Dennett claimed Shell had a “disregard for climate change risks” and urged others within the oil and gasoline industry to “stroll away while 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 stated she had give up due to Shell’s “double-talk on local weather”.

Dennett accused the oil and gas agency of “working beyond the design limits of our planetary systems” and “not putting environmental security earlier than manufacturing”.

She stated: “Shell’s stated safety ambition is to ‘do no harm’ – ‘Objective Zero’, they name it – and it sounds honourable but they're completely failing on it.

“They know that continued oil and fuel extraction causes excessive 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 instructed the Guardian she “couldn't marry these conflicts with my conscience”, adding: “I couldn't carry that any longer, and I’m ready to take care of the consequences.”

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

“I can now not work for a company that ignores all of the alarms and dismisses the risks of climate change and ecological collapse,” she mentioned. “Because, contrary to Shell’s public expressions around web zero, they don't seem to be winding down on oil and gas, however planning to explore and extract far more.”

Dennett – a prison justice graduate who has spent her profession in analysis and consultancy – was inspired to stop working with Shell after watching news footage of Extinction Riot climate protesters urging the corporate’s staff to go away. The movement’s TruthTeller whistleblowing challenge encourages oil and fuel staff to walk away from the business.

The guide, who runs inside security surveys and is predicated 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 within the mirror and ask themselves if they really consider their vision for extra oil and gas extraction secures a protected future for humanity”.

In late 2020, several Shell executives in its clear vitality sector left amid reviews they had been pissed off at the pace of Shell’s shift towards greener fuels.

Her announcement comes on the eve of Shell’s AGM in London on Tuesday. Its plans to cut back emissions will likely be mentioned on the assembly the place the Dutch activist group Observe It will push for the corporate’s insurance policies to be more consistent with the Paris local weather accord. Shell’s board has informed traders to reject the group’s resolution that asks it to set extra stringent climate 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 executive, Ben van Beurden, could expertise an investor insurrection towards his £13.5m pay packet at the AGM after the funding adviser Pirc urged a vote against it.

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A Shell spokesperson stated: “Be in little doubt, we are decided to deliver on our global technique to be a web zero company by 2050 and 1000's of our people are working exhausting to attain this. Now we have set targets for the short, medium and long run, and have every intention of hitting them.

“We’re already investing billions of dollars in low-carbon vitality, though the world will still need oil and gas for decades to return in sectors that can’t be easily decarbonised.”

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

On Monday, the largest oil and fuel producer within the North Sea spoke out against a one-off levy, arguing it will result in the trade approving fewer tasks.

Harbour Energy’s chief government, Linda Cook, told the Monetary Instances: “A better tax burden will make it more challenging for brand new oil and fuel initiatives to meet funding hurdle charges, that means fewer tasks will probably be sanctioned.

“This is at a time when industry is being encouraged to increase domestic UK oil and gasoline manufacturing and support an orderly vitality transition.”

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