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

A senior security guide has quit 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 dangers” and urged others in the oil and gas business to “stroll away whereas there’s still time”.

The executive, who works for the independent 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 stated she had stop due to Shell’s “double-talk on climate”.

Dennett accused the oil and fuel agency of “working beyond the design limits of our planetary techniques” and “not putting environmental security earlier than production”.

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

“They know that continued oil and gas extraction causes extreme harms, to our local weather, to our surroundings and to people. And no matter they are saying, Shell is solely not winding down on fossil fuels.”

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

Shell was a “main client” of Dennett’s business, which specialises in evaluating safety 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 trade.

“I can no longer work for a company that ignores all of the alarms and dismisses the risks of local weather change and ecological collapse,” she stated. “Because, opposite to Shell’s public expressions round internet zero, they are not winding down on oil and gasoline, but planning to explore and extract much more.”

Dennett – a prison justice graduate who has spent her career in research and consultancy – was inspired to cease working with Shell after watching information footage of Extinction Revolt climate protesters urging the corporate’s staff to leave. The movement’s TruthTeller whistleblowing project encourages oil and gasoline workers to walk away from the business.

The consultant, who runs internal safety surveys and is based in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to be able to walk away and “many people 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 imagine their imaginative and prescient for more oil and gas extraction secures a protected future for humanity”.

In late 2020, several Shell executives in its clear power sector left amid reports they have been pissed off at the tempo 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 shall be discussed at the assembly where the Dutch activist group Follow This can push for the company’s policies to be more in line with the Paris local weather accord. Shell’s board has informed buyers to reject the group’s decision that asks it to set more stringent local weather targets.

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

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

Sign as much as the each day Business Today e-mail or observe Guardian Enterprise on Twitter at @BusinessDesk

A Shell spokesperson said: “Be in little question, we are decided to ship on our world strategy to be a internet zero firm by 2050 and hundreds of our people are working arduous to realize this. We have 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 vitality, although the world will nonetheless want oil and fuel for decades to come back in sectors that can’t be easily decarbonised.”

Shell additionally faces the prospect of a possible windfall tax to fund cuts to family payments after the power trade reported bumper profits fuelled by the rise in market prices, prompting opposition parties to name on the government to herald 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 will lead to the business approving fewer initiatives.

Harbour Energy’s chief executive, Linda Cook dinner, instructed the Monetary Times: “A higher tax burden will make it more difficult for brand spanking new oil and fuel projects to meet investment hurdle rates, that means fewer projects will be sanctioned.

“This is at a time when trade is being inspired to extend home UK oil and fuel production and support an orderly energy transition.”

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