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

A senior security guide has give up working with Shell after 11 years, accusing the fossil fuel producer in a bombshell public video of inflicting “extreme harms” to the environment.

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

The chief, who works for the independent agency Clout, ended her working relationship with Shell in an open letter to its executives and 1,400 staff. 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 firm of “working beyond the design limits of our planetary methods” and “not putting environmental security before manufacturing”.

She said: “Shell’s said safety ambition is to ‘do no hurt’ – ‘Purpose Zero’, they call it – and it sounds honourable but they're utterly failing on it.

“They know that continued oil and gasoline extraction causes excessive harms, to our local weather, to our environment and to individuals. And no matter they are saying, Shell is simply not winding down on fossil fuels.”

Dennett advised the Guardian she “could not marry these conflicts with my conscience”, including: “I could not carry that any longer, and I’m ready to deal with the results.”

Shell was a “major consumer” of Dennett’s business, which specialises in evaluating safety procedures in high-risk industries including oil and gas 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 corporation that ignores all the alarms and dismisses the dangers of climate change and ecological collapse,” she stated. “As a result of, opposite to Shell’s public expressions around internet zero, they aren't winding down on oil and gas, but planning to discover and extract way more.”

Dennett – a criminal justice graduate who has spent her career in research and consultancy – was impressed to stop working with Shell after watching news footage of Extinction Rebel climate protesters urging the corporate’s staff to go away. The movement’s TruthTeller whistleblowing venture encourages oil and fuel workers to stroll away from the trade.

The guide, who runs internal security surveys and relies in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to have the ability to walk away and “many people working in fossil gas corporations simply aren’t so lucky”.

She urged Shell’s executives to “look within the mirror and ask themselves if they really believe their imaginative and prescient for extra oil and fuel extraction secures a protected future for humanity”.

In late 2020, several Shell executives in its clear power sector left amid reviews they have been pissed off 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 cut back emissions might be discussed on the assembly where the Dutch activist group Observe This can push for the corporate’s insurance policies to be extra in keeping with the Paris local weather accord. Shell’s board has informed traders to reject the group’s resolution that asks it to set more stringent climate objectives.

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

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

Sign up to the every day Business Immediately e mail or comply with Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk

A Shell spokesperson stated: “Be in little question, we're determined to deliver on our global strategy to be a internet zero firm by 2050 and 1000's of our persons are working exhausting to attain this. We have set targets for the short, medium and long term, and have every intention of hitting them.

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

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

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

Harbour Energy’s chief govt, Linda Prepare dinner, advised the Monetary Occasions: “A better tax burden will make it more challenging for brand spanking new oil and gasoline projects to satisfy investment hurdle rates, meaning fewer projects shall be sanctioned.

“That is at a time when trade is being inspired to extend domestic UK oil and gasoline manufacturing and help an orderly power transition.”

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