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

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

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

The executive, who works for the impartial 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 stop 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 programs” and “not placing environmental security before production”.

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

“They know that continued oil and fuel extraction causes excessive harms, to our local weather, to our environment and to people. And no matter 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 could not carry that any longer, and I’m ready to deal with the results.”

Shell was a “major consumer” of Dennett’s business, 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 business.

“I can now not work for an organization that ignores all the alarms and dismisses the dangers of climate change and ecological collapse,” she stated. “Because, contrary to Shell’s public expressions round net zero, they aren't winding down on oil and gasoline, however planning to explore and extract far more.”

Dennett – a prison justice graduate who has spent her career in research and consultancy – was inspired to cease working with Shell after watching news footage of Extinction Rebellion local weather protesters urging the corporate’s workers to depart. The motion’s TruthTeller whistleblowing undertaking encourages oil and fuel employees to stroll away from the trade.

The marketing consultant, who runs inner security surveys and is based in Weymouth, Dorset, acknowledged she was “privileged” to be able to walk away and “many individuals working in fossil fuel corporations simply aren’t so lucky”.

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

In late 2020, a number of Shell executives in its clear power sector left amid reviews they have been annoyed on the pace 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 can be mentioned at the meeting where the Dutch activist group Follow This may push for the corporate’s policies to be more consistent with the Paris climate accord. Shell’s board has instructed investors to reject the group’s decision that asks it to set more stringent local weather goals.

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

The Shell chief executive, Ben van Beurden, may expertise an investor rebellion against his £13.5m pay packet at the AGM after the funding adviser Pirc urged a vote in opposition to it.

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A Shell spokesperson said: “Be in little doubt, we're determined to ship on our global technique to be a web zero firm by 2050 and 1000's of our persons are working laborious to achieve this. We have set targets for the quick, medium and long run, and have every intention of hitting them.

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

Shell additionally faces the prospect of a potential windfall tax to fund cuts to family bills after the energy trade reported bumper earnings fuelled by the rise in market costs, prompting opposition events to name on the federal government to herald a one-off levy.

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

Harbour Vitality’s chief government, Linda Prepare dinner, instructed the Monetary Occasions: “A better tax burden will make it more challenging for new oil and fuel projects to satisfy funding hurdle charges, meaning fewer projects might be sanctioned.

“This is at a time when business is being encouraged to extend home UK oil and gas manufacturing and support an orderly power transition.”

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