London Science Museum signed gagging order with
Shell over climate change exhibition
Campaigners accuse museum of allowing Shell to
‘greenwash’ their image with exhibition on carbon capture.
BY KARL
MATHIESEN
July 30,
2021 2:01 pm
The London
Science Museum agreed not to publicly criticize Shell as part of a sponsorship
deal for an exhibition about carbon capture.
In a
contract released to campaign group Culture Unstained under freedom of information
laws, the museum said it would not “make any statement or issue any publicity
or otherwise be involved in any conduct or matter that may reasonably be
foreseen as discrediting or damaging the goodwill or reputation of the
Sponsor.”
The exhibition,
called Our Future Planet, explores different natural and technological
solutions for drawing carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. These include
technologies that Shell either has commercial interest in, researches or
actually operates.
Oil and gas
industry support for British cultural institutions has been subject to a
long-running campaign by environmentalists. Culture Unstained accused the
Science Museum of allowing Shell to “greenwash” its public image.
Culture
Unstained also obtained email exchanges between museum director Ian Blatchford
as he sought Shell’s help in securing support from the Oil and Gas Climate
Initiative — a group of a dozen of the largest fossil fuel corporations. The
Science Museum eventually walked away from the deal, the documents said,
because one of the companies did not meet its environmental criteria.
A Science
Museum spokesperson told U.K. broadcaster Channel 4 News, which first reported
the contract, that “energy companies need to play a big part” in the
“transition to a low carbon economy” and that “we regard the blanket approach
demanded by some campaigners of severing all relationships with energy
companies as unproductive.”
A
spokesperson for Shell said: “We fully respect the museum’s independence.
That’s why its exhibition on carbon capture matters and why we supported it.
Debate and discussion — among anyone who sees it — are essential."
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