London Science Museum ends partnership with BP after decades

The London Science Museum has ended its decades-long partnership with the oil and gas company BP in what has been described as a “seismic shift” for the museum.

The Science Museum Group academy, which was established in 2018 to provide training and resources, announced on Friday that it would be ending its partnership with BP. In a statement, the director and chief executive of the Science Museum Group, Sir Ian Blatchford, said the partnership had “drawn to a close at the end of the current contract term”.

Blatchford said BP’s “generous contributions helped us to inspire more than 11,000 education, museum and science professionals through research-informed science engagement training, supporting vital work to spark curiosity and bring science to life for more than 1 million young people across the country”.

BP’s relationship with the Science Museum, which goes back decades, has come under previous scrutiny, with the company accused by campaigners of having an “insidious influence” over the teaching of science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) in the UK through its relationship with the museum.

A spokesperson for BP said: “BP and the Science Museum Group Academy’s partnership will draw to a close on Monday 31 August at the end of its agreed term.”

In 2024, the museum cut ties with the oil company Equinor over its failure to lower carbon emissions sufficiently to ensure it was aligned with the Paris climate agreement goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C.

Chris Garrard of the campaign group Culture Unstained said this “seismic shift” came after years of campaigning and growing pressure from educators and schools, some of which have pledged to boycott trips to the museum over its partnership with BP.

“BP’s commitment to climate action was never worth the paper it was written on but the Science Museum’s director passionately championed his partnership with the major polluter year after year. Now, with the world facing droughts and wildfires and BP recklessly ramping up its production of dirty fossil fuels, the museum has finally come to its senses and followed the rest of the culture sector in cutting ties to BP,” he said.

However, Garrard said this decision represented only a “partial victory”. The museum still takes money from Adani Green Energy Ltd, a subsidiary of the Adani Group, one of the world’s largest private coal mining and energy conglomerates.

The academy provides training and resources to teachers, museum practitioners and the Stem industry nationally and internationally.