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

A senior safety marketing consultant has give up 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 climate change dangers” and urged others in the oil and gasoline trade to “walk away while there’s still time”.

The executive, 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 said she had quit because of Shell’s “double-talk on climate”.

Dennett accused the oil and fuel agency of “operating past the design limits of our planetary techniques” and “not placing environmental safety before production”.

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

“They know that continued oil and fuel extraction causes excessive harms, to our local weather, to our surroundings and to people. And no matter they are saying, Shell is solely not winding down on fossil fuels.”

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

Shell was a “major client” of Dennett’s business, which specialises in evaluating security procedures in high-risk industries including oil and gasoline production. 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 an organization that ignores all the alarms and dismisses the dangers of climate change and ecological collapse,” she mentioned. “Because, opposite to Shell’s public expressions around internet zero, they don't seem to be winding down on oil and gas, but planning to explore and extract far more.”

Dennett – a criminal justice graduate who has spent her profession in research and consultancy – was impressed to stop working with Shell after watching news footage of Extinction Rebellion local weather protesters urging the company’s employees to go away. The movement’s TruthTeller whistleblowing undertaking encourages oil and fuel workers to stroll away from the industry.

The 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 gas corporations just aren’t so lucky”.

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

In late 2020, a number of Shell executives in its clean energy sector left amid studies they were frustrated 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 reduce emissions will be discussed on the meeting the place the Dutch activist group Observe This will push for the corporate’s policies to be extra per the Paris climate accord. Shell’s board has instructed buyers to reject the group’s decision that asks it to set more stringent climate goals.

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

The Shell chief govt, Ben van Beurden, might experience an investor rebellion against 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 stated: “Be in little question, we are determined to ship on our global strategy to be a net zero company by 2050 and hundreds of our people are working onerous to attain this. Now we have set targets for the short, medium and long term, and have every 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 many years to come back in sectors that may’t be simply decarbonised.”

Shell additionally faces the prospect of a potential windfall tax to fund cuts to family payments after the power trade reported bumper income fuelled by the rise in market costs, prompting opposition parties to name on the government to usher in a one-off levy.

On Monday, the largest oil and fuel producer in the North Sea spoke out in opposition to a one-off levy, arguing it will lead to the business approving fewer tasks.

Harbour Power’s chief executive, Linda Cook, advised the Financial Instances: “The next tax burden will make it more difficult for brand spanking new oil and fuel projects to satisfy funding hurdle charges, that means fewer initiatives can be sanctioned.

“That is at a time when trade is being inspired to increase home UK oil and gas production and help an orderly energy transition.”

Harbour has told the 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 obtained a £4.6m “golden good day” from the agency.