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

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

Caroline Dennett claimed Shell had a “disregard for local weather change risks” and urged others within the oil and gas industry to “walk away whereas there’s still time”.

The executive, who works for the independent company 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 give up due to Shell’s “double-talk on climate”.

Dennett accused the oil and gas firm of “operating beyond the design limits of our planetary programs” and “not placing environmental security before production”.

She stated: “Shell’s stated security ambition is to ‘do no hurt’ – ‘Purpose 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 environment and to folks. And whatever they say, Shell is simply not winding down on fossil fuels.”

Dennett advised the Guardian she “could not marry these conflicts with my conscience”, including: “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 business, which specialises in evaluating security procedures in high-risk industries including oil and gasoline manufacturing. She started working with Shell in the aftermath of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, which rocked the business.

“I can now not work for a corporation that ignores all of the alarms and dismisses the risks of climate change and ecological collapse,” she stated. “As a result of, contrary to Shell’s public expressions round internet zero, they aren't winding down on oil and fuel, however planning to explore and extract rather more.”

Dennett – a prison justice graduate who has spent her career in analysis and consultancy – was impressed to stop working with Shell after watching news footage of Extinction Revolt climate protesters urging the company’s employees to go away. The motion’s TruthTeller whistleblowing project encourages oil and gas staff to walk away from the business.

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

She urged Shell’s executives to “look in the mirror and ask themselves in the event that they really believe their imaginative and prescient for more oil and gas extraction secures a secure future for humanity”.

In late 2020, a number of Shell executives in its clean vitality sector left amid reports they have been annoyed at 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 will probably be discussed at the meeting where the Dutch activist group Comply with This may push for the company’s policies to be more according to 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 climate transition proposals.

The Shell chief executive, Ben van Beurden, could experience an investor riot towards his £13.5m pay packet at the AGM after the funding adviser Pirc urged a vote against it.

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A Shell spokesperson mentioned: “Be in little doubt, we are decided to ship on our world strategy to be a web zero firm by 2050 and 1000's of our people are working onerous to attain this. We 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, though the world will nonetheless want oil and gasoline for many years to come back in sectors that can’t be easily decarbonised.”

Shell also faces the prospect of a possible windfall tax to fund cuts to household bills after the energy trade reported bumper earnings fuelled by the rise in market costs, prompting opposition events to call on the federal government to bring in a one-off levy.

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

Harbour Energy’s chief executive, Linda Prepare dinner, told the Financial Instances: “The next tax burden will make it tougher for brand spanking new oil and gasoline initiatives to satisfy funding hurdle charges, that means fewer projects will be sanctioned.

“That is at a time when industry is being encouraged to extend domestic UK oil and fuel production and assist an orderly power transition.”

Harbour has advised the government it plans to invest $6bn within the North Sea over three years as trade makes its case against the tax. The Guardian revealed this month that Cook had received a £4.6m “golden hello” from the agency.