The Science Museum Group’s chairman of the board, Tim Laurence, announced the end of the sponsorship agreement with Norwegian oil giant Equinor in a statement published on the museum’s blog on 28 June 2024. Since May 2022, the museum’s management has indeed committed to terminating the contract of sponsors who do not meet the climate criteria in line with the Paris Agreement (2015).
A number of emails recently obtained by environmental campaign group Culture Unstained have revealed evidence that the oil company is compromised. Science Museum Group director Ian Blatchford revealed in The Observer that Equinor had deliberately violated the museum’s commitment to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees.
The move has not quelled controversy over fossil fuel companies’ involvement in museums, although campaigners welcome the move. ” radical change “. Some activists point out the absence of a clear position from the Science Museum in the press release, which largely thanks Equinor for its previous contributions. A “gag clause” The sponsorship contract prevents any negative comments from the museum on Equinor’s activities.
“Rather than proudly telling the world that it acted because its sponsor was flouting climate goals supported by governments around the world, the museum continues to spread the false narrative that its polluting sponsors are leading the energy transition.” denounces Sara Waldron, co-director of Culture Unstained. The campaign group is calling on the Science Museum to drop its other sponsorship deals with oil giant British Petroleum and coal giant Adani. The chair of the board responded negatively on behalf of the museum, announcing that it would retain its current sponsors.
The Science Museum has been under pressure since July 2018, when 46 scientists filed a formal complaint demanding that it end its partnerships with oil giants British Petroleum, Shell and Statoil/Equinor. The signatories brandished the Museum’s commitment, which officially announced “commit to the urgency of the climate challenge”Since March 2024, eco-activists led by the group Fossil Free Now have taken numerous actions in front of the museum to protest against oil sponsorship in the cultural sector.
The scientists who signed the petition also denounced Equinor’s interference in the content of the museum’s exhibitions, which they said allowed the oil giant to advocate to politicians and the general public for the exploitation of fossil fuels. Critics accused another oil group, Shell, of using the Science Museum’s exhibitions for its own purposes. “Emails reveal Science Museum is a key cog in Shell’s propaganda machine”says Chris Garrard of the anti-oil sponsor campaign group “BP or not BP”.
An article from the Guardian (2015) revealed that Shell had attempted to influence the presentation of a space at the museum on climate change that it sponsored. Shell is the main sponsor of the “Atmosphere gallery” at the Science Museum, designed to raise awareness of global warming issues. A damning email revealed Shell executives’ concerns about the presence of members of certain NGOs at a museum symposium.
Before removing Equinor from his sponsorship, Ian Blatchford had declared in 2019 to Financial Times that even though the Science Museum was publicly funded, it was desirable to benefit from sponsorship from oil companies in a context of dwindling public funding. The museum’s board of trustees revealed in a statement of 24 June that the £95 million invested in the transformation of the museum’s galleries over the last ten years had been entirely funded by oil companies. “Not a single cent came from taxpayers” he says. Mark Jones, current director of the British Museum, recently proposed the idea of a £20 entry ticket for foreign tourists to national museums as an alternative to corporate sponsorship of the fossil fuel industry.