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

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

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

The executive, who works for the unbiased 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 mentioned she had give up due to Shell’s “double-talk on climate”.

Dennett accused the oil and gasoline firm of “working past the design limits of our planetary programs” and “not putting environmental safety before production”.

She stated: “Shell’s said security ambition is to ‘do no harm’ – ‘Aim Zero’, they name it – and it sounds honourable however they are completely failing on it.

“They know that continued oil and gas extraction causes extreme harms, to our climate, to the environment and to folks. And whatever they say, Shell is simply 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 able to cope with the results.”

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

“I can not work for an organization 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 around web zero, they don't seem to be winding down on oil and fuel, but planning to explore and extract much more.”

Dennett – a legal justice graduate who has spent her career in analysis and consultancy – was impressed to cease working with Shell after watching news footage of Extinction Rebellion climate protesters urging the corporate’s employees to go away. The movement’s TruthTeller whistleblowing mission encourages oil and gas staff to stroll away from the trade.

The marketing consultant, who runs inner safety surveys and is based in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to have the ability to stroll away and “many people working in fossil gasoline corporations just aren’t so lucky”.

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

In late 2020, a number of Shell executives in its clean energy sector left amid studies they were frustrated at the tempo 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 will likely be mentioned on the assembly where the Dutch activist group Follow This may push for the corporate’s insurance policies to be extra in line with the Paris climate accord. Shell’s board has informed investors to reject the group’s decision that asks it to set extra stringent local weather objectives.

The Shell investor Royal London has said it intends to abstain on a vote on the agency’s climate 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 investment adviser Pirc urged a vote against it.

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A Shell spokesperson mentioned: “Be in little question, we are determined to deliver on our global technique to be a web zero company by 2050 and hundreds of our individuals are working hard to attain this. We have now 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 vitality, although the world will still need oil and fuel for decades to come in sectors that can’t be simply decarbonised.”

Shell also faces the prospect of a possible windfall tax to fund cuts to family bills after the energy trade reported bumper income fuelled by the increase in market prices, prompting opposition events to name on the government to usher in a one-off levy.

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

Harbour Energy’s chief government, Linda Cook, informed the Monetary Occasions: “A higher tax burden will make it tougher for brand new oil and gas projects to satisfy investment hurdle charges, which means fewer projects might be sanctioned.

“That is at a time when industry is being encouraged to increase domestic UK oil and fuel production and help an orderly power transition.”

Harbour has instructed the government it plans to speculate $6bn within the North Sea over three years as industry makes its case in opposition to the tax. The Guardian revealed this month that Prepare dinner had acquired a £4.6m “golden whats up” from the firm.