Shell marketing 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 gasoline producer in a bombshell public video of causing “extreme harms” to the surroundings.

Caroline Dennett claimed Shell had a “disregard for climate change dangers” and urged others within the oil and fuel business to “walk away while there’s still time”.

The chief, who works for the impartial company 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 quit because of Shell’s “double-talk on local weather”.

Dennett accused the oil and gasoline firm of “operating past the design limits of our planetary programs” and “not placing environmental security earlier than manufacturing”.

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

“They know that continued oil and fuel extraction causes excessive harms, to our climate, to our environment and to folks. And whatever they say, Shell is solely 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 cope with the implications.”

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

“I can now not work for an organization that ignores all the alarms and dismisses the dangers of local weather change and ecological collapse,” she said. “Because, opposite to Shell’s public expressions round web zero, they are not winding down on oil and gasoline, but planning to discover and extract rather more.”

Dennett – a criminal 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 local weather protesters urging the company’s staff to depart. The movement’s TruthTeller whistleblowing mission encourages oil and gasoline employees to stroll away from the trade.

The marketing consultant, who runs inside safety surveys and relies in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to be able to walk away and “many people working in fossil gasoline companies just aren’t so fortunate”.

She urged Shell’s executives to “look within the mirror and ask themselves if they really imagine their vision for more oil and gasoline extraction secures a protected future for humanity”.

In late 2020, several Shell executives in its clean energy sector left amid reviews they have been annoyed on the pace of Shell’s shift in the 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 be discussed on the meeting where the Dutch activist group Observe This will push for the company’s insurance policies to be extra consistent with the Paris climate accord. Shell’s board has informed traders to reject the group’s resolution that asks it to set extra stringent climate objectives.

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

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

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A Shell spokesperson mentioned: “Be in no doubt, we are determined to deliver on our international technique to be a net zero firm by 2050 and 1000's of our people are working onerous to achieve this. We've set targets for the quick, medium and long run, and have each intention of hitting them.

“We’re already investing billions of dollars in low-carbon energy, although the world will nonetheless want oil and gasoline for decades to come back 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 energy trade reported bumper income fuelled by the rise in market costs, prompting opposition events to call on the government to usher in a one-off levy.

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

Harbour Power’s chief govt, Linda Cook, instructed the Monetary Times: “A higher tax burden will make it more challenging for brand new oil and gas projects to fulfill investment hurdle charges, meaning fewer tasks shall be sanctioned.

“This is at a time when industry is being inspired to increase home UK oil and gas manufacturing and help an orderly power transition.”

Harbour has instructed the federal government it plans to invest $6bn within the North Sea over three years as industry makes its case against the tax. The Guardian revealed this month that Cook dinner had acquired a £4.6m “golden hi there” from the agency.