Shell consultant quits, accusing agency of ‘extreme harms’ to atmosphere | Shell

A senior safety marketing consultant has quit 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 climate change dangers” and urged others within the oil and gas industry to “walk away while there’s still time”.

The manager, who works for the impartial company 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 gasoline firm of “operating beyond the design limits of our planetary methods” and “not placing environmental safety earlier than production”.

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

“They know that continued oil and fuel extraction causes extreme harms, to our local weather, to the environment and to folks. And no matter they are saying, Shell is simply not winding down on fossil fuels.”

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

Shell was a “main client” of Dennett’s enterprise, which specialises in evaluating security procedures in high-risk industries together with oil and fuel manufacturing. She started working with Shell within 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 of the alarms and dismisses the dangers of local weather change and ecological collapse,” she mentioned. “Because, opposite to Shell’s public expressions round net zero, they aren't winding down on oil and gas, however planning to discover and extract much more.”

Dennett – a criminal justice graduate who has spent her career in research and consultancy – was impressed to cease working with Shell after watching news footage of Extinction Rise up local weather protesters urging the company’s staff to go away. The motion’s TruthTeller whistleblowing undertaking encourages oil and gas workers to walk away from the business.

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

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

In late 2020, a number of Shell executives in its clean power sector left amid stories they had been frustrated at 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 likely be mentioned on the meeting where the Dutch activist group Follow This will push for the corporate’s insurance policies to be extra in line with the Paris local weather accord. Shell’s board has advised traders to reject the group’s decision that asks it to set more stringent local weather objectives.

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

The Shell chief govt, 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 against it.

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A Shell spokesperson said: “Be in little question, we're determined to ship on our international strategy to be a web zero company by 2050 and hundreds of our people are working arduous to realize this. We've 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 nonetheless want oil and gas for decades to come in sectors that may’t be simply decarbonised.”

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

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

Harbour Power’s chief government, Linda Cook, advised the Financial Instances: “A better tax burden will make it more difficult for brand new oil and gasoline tasks to fulfill funding hurdle charges, that means fewer projects will probably be sanctioned.

“This is at a time when business is being inspired to extend domestic UK oil and gasoline manufacturing and support an orderly power transition.”

Harbour has informed the federal government it plans to speculate $6bn within the North Sea over three years as trade makes its case in opposition to the tax. The Guardian revealed this month that Prepare dinner had received a £4.6m “golden hi there” from the firm.