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

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

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

The chief, who works for the impartial agency Clout, ended her working relationship with Shell in an open letter to its executives and 1,400 workers. In an accompanying video, posted on LinkedIn, she stated she had quit because of Shell’s “double-talk on local weather”.

Dennett accused the oil and fuel agency of “working beyond the design limits of our planetary programs” and “not placing environmental safety earlier than manufacturing”.

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

“They know that continued oil and fuel extraction causes extreme harms, to our climate, to the environment and to folks. And whatever they say, Shell is solely not winding down on fossil fuels.”

Dennett advised the Guardian she “couldn't marry these conflicts with my conscience”, adding: “I couldn't carry that any longer, and I’m able to deal with the implications.”

Shell was a “main consumer” 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 industry.

“I can not work for a corporation that ignores all of the alarms and dismisses the dangers of climate change and ecological collapse,” she mentioned. “As a result of, opposite to Shell’s public expressions round web zero, they are not winding down on oil and fuel, however planning to explore and extract much more.”

Dennett – a felony justice graduate who has spent her profession in research and consultancy – was inspired to cease working with Shell after watching news footage of Extinction Riot local weather protesters urging the company’s employees to depart. The movement’s TruthTeller whistleblowing challenge encourages oil and gasoline staff to stroll away from the trade.

The marketing consultant, who runs inside safety surveys and is based in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to be able to stroll away and “many individuals working in fossil fuel firms just aren’t so lucky”.

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

In late 2020, several Shell executives in its clean vitality sector left amid reports they were frustrated 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 probably be discussed on the assembly the place the Dutch activist group Comply with This can push for the company’s policies to be extra 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 extra stringent climate targets.

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

The Shell chief executive, Ben van Beurden, may expertise an investor rise up 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 mentioned: “Be in little doubt, we are decided to deliver on our world technique to be a net zero company by 2050 and thousands of our individuals are working arduous to achieve this. We have 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 want oil and gasoline for many years to come in sectors that can’t be simply decarbonised.”

Shell additionally faces the prospect of a possible windfall tax to fund cuts to household bills after the power industry reported bumper earnings fuelled by the increase in market costs, prompting opposition parties to call on the federal government to usher in a one-off levy.

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

Harbour Energy’s chief executive, Linda Cook, told the Financial Occasions: “A higher tax burden will make it more challenging for new oil and gasoline projects to fulfill investment hurdle rates, meaning fewer initiatives might be sanctioned.

“That is at a time when trade is being inspired to increase domestic UK oil and fuel production and assist an orderly power transition.”

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