The Science Museum has reportedly been forced to end its relationship with oil giant Equinor over its sponsor’s environmental record, the Observer can reveal.
Since 2016, Equinor has sponsored the museum’s interactive “WonderLab”, but the relationship is now coming to close, a move that will be seen as a major victory for climate change campaigners.
The London museum was quoted as saying that it was severing ties with the Norwegian state-owned energy giant over its failure to lower carbon emissions sufficiently to ensure it was aligned with the Paris Climate Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.
The sponsorship deal had been controversial because of Equinor’s role in Rosebank, the biggest undeveloped oil and gas field in the North Sea, which the government gave the go-ahead to develop last year.
The company also inserted a “gagging clause” in its original deal with the museum, which prevented staff from making comments that could be seen as “discrediting or damaging the goodwill or reputation” of Equinor.
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Although the museum claimed that such clauses were reciprocal and standard in corporate partnerships, it has pledged to remove them in future. In a statement, the Science Museum confirmed that Equinor’s sponsorship had “drawn to a close at the end of their current contract term”.
A spokesperson of the museum added: “The partnership concludes with our warm appreciation and with our ongoing encouragement to Equinor to continue to raise the bar in their efforts to put in place emissions reduction targets aligned with limiting global warming to 1.5°C.”
In emails disclosed under Freedom of Information legislation and shared with the Observer, Science Museum director Sir Ian Blatchford told Equinor that the company was in breach of the museum’s pledge to ensure its sponsors complied with the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
