SCIENCE MUSEUM DROPS EQUINOR
- Science Museum forced to drop Equinor as sponsor after it failed to meet museum’s criteria that its business must align with Paris Agreement 1.5°C target
- Museum accused of cynically attempting to avoid embarrassment for Norwegian oil and gas firm by burying “seismic shift” under news of UK General Election
- Pressure grows on museum to now end sponsorship ties to major polluter BP and Indian coal mining and arms conglomerate Adani
In a huge win for the campaign against fossil fuel sponsorship, the Science Museum has confirmed that its controversial sponsorship deal with the Norwegian oil and gas producer Equinor is over following years of opposition from campaigners and scientists, who are calling the move a ‘seismic shift’. Equinor had sponsored the museum’s ‘Wonderlab’ gallery for children since 2016 in a bid to boost its brand in the UK but the partnership will not be renewed after Equinor failed to meet the museum’s new climate criteria: to align its business with the Paris Climate Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. The museum is now facing calls to cut sponsorship ties to major polluter BP and the Indian coal mining conglomerate Adani.
Sarah Waldron, Co-director of Culture Unstained, which has campaigns against fossil fuel sponsorship of culture, has said:
‘This is a seismic shift. After years of mounting pressure, the Science Museum has now adopted red lines on climate change which have led to Equinor being dropped. Yet rather than proudly telling the world that it took action because its sponsor was flouting climate targets backed by governments around the world, the museum continues to push the false narrative that its polluting sponsors are leading the energy transition. With BP also failing to align its business with Paris Agreement goals and Adani the world’s biggest private producer of coal, the museum must now hold these companies to the same standard and stop promoting their toxic brands.’
Activists scatter 40,000 snowflakes inside the Science Museum’s ‘Energy Hall’ in protest at Equinor’s (then Statoil) sponsorship of the Wonderlab gallery for children. Photos: Kristian Buus.
The news was quietly announced in a blogpost by the Science Museum’s Chair Sir Tim Laurence just days before the UK General Election in an apparent attempt to dodge scrutiny of Equinor’s exit. Despite stating in his post that ‘those we partner with must demonstrate that they are moving with sufficient urgency along the transition pathway to meet our aspirations’, he does not make clear that it is Equinor’s failure to meet criteria in the museum’s Sustainability Policy that triggered the end of the partnership. However, emails disclosed to campaign organisation Culture Unstained following a Freedom of Information (FOI) request show that Equinor had been contacted by the Director in 2022, and again in November 2023, about the future of the relationship after the Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI) had concluded that Equinor’s business was not aligned with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, the threshold set by the museum for its corporate sponsors (see below).
Laurence instead claims that the sponsorship had merely ‘drawn to a close at the end of their current contract term’ and thanks Equinor, while misleadingly referring to it as a ‘broad energy company’ despite its core business remaining in oil and gas extraction. The Science Museum was heavily criticised in the past for including a non-disparagement or “gagging clause” in its original contract with Equinor, first revealed following an FOI request by Culture Unstained in 2018, which prevented staff from making comments that could be seen as ‘discrediting or damaging the goodwill or reputation of the Sponsor’.
Lauren MacDonald, Lead Campaigner at Stop Rosebank, commented:
“The Science Museum of all places should not have taken this long to accept that Equinor – a fossil fuel giant – does not align with the Paris Agreement. However, the much overdue move could turn the tide against the trend of fossil fuel sponsorship and greenwash which has become all too common in our cultural institutions. The museum should be wearing the red lines it has adopted with pride, not hiding behind corporate lies that polluting energy sponsors can address the climate crisis.
Equinor is the majority owner of the Rosebank oil field, which is currently being challenged in the Scottish courts. If Rosebank goes ahead, the field will produce more CO2 than the world’s 28 lowest-income countries combined in one year. It is an excellent example of why Equinor is not serious about its energy transition. As institutions like the Science Museum turn their back on the likes of Equinor, we urge others to follow suit and mount pressure on the company to pull the plug on the Rosebank project.”
Equinor’s exit represents a significant blow to the standing of Director Ian Blatchford and his stubborn defence of the museum’s fossil fuel sponsorships, previously telling the Financial Times that, ‘Even if the Science Museum were lavishly publicly funded, I would still want to have sponsorship from the oil companies.’ The museum now faces questions over why it is continuing to partner with BP when, last year, the Church of England dropped its remaining fossil fuel investments after concluding that no major oil and gas company – including BP – is ‘aligned with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, as assessed by the Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI).’ Adani, the controversial sponsor of the museum’s new ‘Energy Revolution’ gallery, is the world’s biggest private producer of coal and partners with Israeli arms firm Elbit on the production of drones being used in the genocide in Palestine.
Julie Forchhammer, co-founder Klimakultur, a Norwegian non-profit working with the arts and culture sector on taking climate action, has said:
“I visited the Science Museum in London last year and saw first-hand how Equinor was marketed to the kids experiencing the Wonderlab Gallery, so it’s great news to hear that Equinor is now out of the museum. It gives me hope that the same can happen here in Norway where Equinor sponsors Teknisk Museum in Oslo and the science centres in Bergen, Gjøvik, Nordland, Sandnes, Sarpsborg, Stavanger, and Trondheim. We urgently need more awareness of how it impacts a small country like Norway to have hundreds of thousands of children and their families targeted by Equinor each year, through the science centres, in school classes and at universities. These campaigns in the UK show how we can approach this issue in Norway, where the fossil fuel disinformation machinery is ingrained so deeply in all aspects of society.”
Activists from Art Not Oil and Natur og Ungdom protest outside the Science Museum as guests arrive for the opening of Wonderlab: the Statoil Gallery in 2016. Photos: Kristian Buus.
‘Wonderlab: the Statoil Gallery’ opened amidst significant opposition in 2016 with Norwegian youth activists joining a creative protest at the opening of the gallery, and scientists, campaigners and then Green Party MP Caroline Lucas signing a letterurging the museum to drop what was then Statoil as a sponsor. Despite changing its name to Equinor as part of an attempt to “greenwash” its image, Equinor continued to face opposition as it invested heavily in new oil and gas extraction including in the Arctic and, more recently, over its plans to expand into the Rosebank oil field in the North Sea. The museum has also faced numerous protests, interventions and open letters from scientists, youth activists and Indigenous leaders over its fossil fuel partnerships, with the announcement of a sponsorship deal with Adani in 2021 prompting the resignation of Dr Hannah Fry and Dr Jo Foster as trustees.
