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Two of Britain’s best-loved museums have been forced to defend their financial ties to BP after the company announced this week that it was abandoning its climate targets to focus on growing fossil fuel production.
The British Museum and the Science Museum, which have sponsorship deals with BP, said the company’s decision to grow its investments in oil and gas by cutting back on green spending would not alter their relationship with it.
The two museums have come under fire from campaigners for their ongoing association with the company, which said this week that its optimism in the green transition had been “misplaced” and it would now invest the vast majority of its capital in fossil fuels.
BP’s chief executive, Murray Auchincloss, told the Financial Times he believed the “exciting” new strategy could more than double the company’s market value to $200bn by the end of the decade, in line with its valuation before the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010.
The campaign group Culture Unstained called on organisations including the British Museum and the Science Museum to urgently end their sponsorship deals or be “held to account over the clear ethical conflict in backing BP and its reckless business plans”.
A spokesperson said: “BP abandoned any pretence of caring about its massive climate impacts as it recommitted to oil and gas. Now, by recommitting to their partnerships with BP, the British Museum and Science Museum have done the same.
“The boards of both institutions must urgently think again [about] the huge harm to their reputations that will be brought about by choosing to back BP.”
The British Museum has faced renewed scrutiny of its relationship with BP since signing a 10-year, £50m partnership to fund one of the biggest redevelopments in its history, a move climate campaigners said was “astonishingly out of touch”.
Culture Unstained said the decision was “indefensible when it was announced just a year ago” but had now become “clearly untenable”.
BP has a long history of sponsoring arts institutions in Britain, but many – including the Royal Opera House, National Portrait Gallery and Tate galleries –have cut ties with it in recent years after pressure from climate campaigners.
A British Museum spokesperson said significant financial support was vital to complete the most ambitious restoration project of its 270-year history. They said it would need “corporate and private donations from companies like BP to ensure that the magnificent collection stays on display to the public for centuries to come”.
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The Science Museum said the sponsorship it received from a wide range of funders, including BP, was “vital to our mission to inspire millions of people every year”.
BP’s decision to turn its back on its climate agenda follows years of pressure from disgruntled shareholders who believe the company would be more profitable by focusing on oil and gas.
The company is also under threat from an activist hedge fund, Elliott Management, which is expected to use its newly acquired stake to force BP to adopt sweeping changes which could include a breakup of the company and dismantling of its board.
The New York fund has indicated that BP’s turnaround plan was “lacking in urgency and ambition” and did not go far enough, according to a Bloomberg report. It is expected to write to BP’s board of BP to outline its own plan for the company.
BP has been approached for comment.
