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

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

Caroline Dennett claimed Shell had a “disregard for climate change dangers” and urged others in the oil and gasoline business to “stroll away while there’s nonetheless time”.

The manager, who works for the independent agency 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 gas firm of “operating beyond the design limits of our planetary systems” and “not putting environmental security earlier than manufacturing”.

She said: “Shell’s acknowledged safety ambition is to ‘do no harm’ – ‘Purpose Zero’, they call it – and it sounds honourable however they are completely failing on it.

“They know that continued oil and gasoline extraction causes excessive harms, to our climate, to the environment and to individuals. And whatever 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”, adding: “I couldn't carry that any longer, and I’m ready to take care of the results.”

Shell was a “major shopper” of Dennett’s enterprise, which specialises in evaluating security procedures in high-risk industries including oil and gasoline manufacturing. She started working with Shell within the aftermath of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, which rocked the trade.

“I can now not work for an organization that ignores all of the alarms and dismisses the dangers of climate change and ecological collapse,” she stated. “Because, contrary 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 profession in analysis and consultancy – was impressed to stop working with Shell after watching news footage of Extinction Rise up local weather protesters urging the corporate’s staff to go away. The movement’s TruthTeller whistleblowing project encourages oil and gas employees to walk away from the trade.

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

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

In late 2020, a number of Shell executives in its clean vitality sector left amid stories they had been annoyed at the tempo 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 scale back emissions will likely be discussed at the meeting where the Dutch activist group Observe This can push for the corporate’s policies to be extra in step with the Paris climate accord. Shell’s board has told investors to reject the group’s resolution that asks it to set extra stringent climate goals.

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

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A Shell spokesperson said: “Be in little doubt, we're determined to ship on our international technique to be a web zero firm by 2050 and 1000's of our persons are working arduous to realize this. We now have set targets for the brief, medium and long term, 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 gas for many years to come back in sectors that can’t be easily decarbonised.”

Shell also faces the prospect of a potential windfall tax to fund cuts to family bills after the vitality trade reported bumper profits fuelled by the increase in market costs, prompting opposition events to name on the federal government to bring in a one-off levy.

On Monday, the largest oil and gasoline producer within the North Sea spoke out towards a one-off levy, arguing it might result in the trade approving fewer tasks.

Harbour Vitality’s chief govt, Linda Prepare dinner, told the Financial Instances: “The next tax burden will make it tougher for new oil and gas projects to fulfill funding hurdle charges, that means fewer tasks might be sanctioned.

“That is at a time when trade is being encouraged to extend domestic UK oil and gas production and support an orderly vitality transition.”

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