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

A senior security marketing consultant has quit working with Shell after 11 years, accusing the fossil gas producer in a bombshell public video of causing “excessive harms” to the atmosphere.

Caroline Dennett claimed Shell had a “disregard for local weather change risks” and urged others in the oil and gasoline business to “walk away whereas 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 stated she had quit due to Shell’s “double-talk on climate”.

Dennett accused the oil and gas agency of “operating past the design limits of our planetary techniques” and “not placing environmental security before manufacturing”.

She said: “Shell’s stated security ambition is to ‘do no hurt’ – ‘Objective Zero’, they name it – and it sounds honourable however they're fully failing on it.

“They know that continued oil and gasoline extraction causes excessive harms, to our climate, to our surroundings and to people. And no matter they say, Shell is simply not winding down on fossil fuels.”

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

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

“I can now not work for a company 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 gas, but planning to discover and extract rather more.”

Dennett – a legal justice graduate who has spent her profession in analysis and consultancy – was inspired to cease working with Shell after watching information footage of Extinction Revolt local weather protesters urging the corporate’s workers to depart. The movement’s TruthTeller whistleblowing challenge encourages oil and gasoline employees to walk away from the trade.

The advisor, who runs inside 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 firms simply aren’t so fortunate”.

She urged Shell’s executives to “look in the mirror and ask themselves in the event that they actually consider their imaginative and prescient for extra oil and gas extraction secures a safe future for humanity”.

In late 2020, several Shell executives in its clean power sector left amid reports they have been frustrated 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 cut back emissions will likely be discussed on the meeting where the Dutch activist group Follow This can push for the company’s policies to be extra in step with the Paris local weather accord. Shell’s board has told investors to reject the group’s resolution that asks it to set more stringent climate targets.

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

The Shell chief executive, Ben van Beurden, might expertise an investor rebellion against his £13.5m pay packet at the AGM after the investment adviser Pirc urged a vote towards it.

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A Shell spokesperson stated: “Be in little doubt, we are decided to ship on our world strategy to be a internet zero firm by 2050 and hundreds of our persons are working laborious to realize this. We've got set targets for the brief, medium and long term, and have every intention of hitting them.

“We’re already investing billions of dollars in low-carbon power, though the world will still need oil and gas for decades to return in sectors that can’t be simply decarbonised.”

Shell also faces the prospect of a potential windfall tax to fund cuts to household bills after the energy industry reported bumper profits fuelled by the rise in market prices, prompting opposition parties to name on the government to herald a one-off levy.

On Monday, the largest oil and fuel producer within the North Sea spoke out against a one-off levy, arguing it could lead to the business approving fewer initiatives.

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

“That is at a time when industry is being inspired to extend home UK oil and fuel manufacturing 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 against the tax. The Guardian revealed this month that Prepare dinner had obtained a £4.6m “golden hello” from the firm.