London Science Museum Cuts Equinor Sponsorship; Gag Clause, Failure To Hit Paris Targets Cited
The Science Museum has been forced to cut ties with oil giant Equinor over its sponsor’s environmental record, the Observer can reveal. Equinor has sponsored the museum’s interactive “WonderLab” since 2016, 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 said 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.
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”.
EDIT
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/jul/13/science-museum-equinox-drops-oil-giants-sponsorship-over-their-climate-record