Climate and heritage experts call on British Museum to end BP sponsorship

theguardian.com:

A group of climate scientists, archaeologists and those familiar with the museum industry have written to the British Museum’s board of trustees to urge them to sever a sponsorship deal with BP, arguing that it goes against the museum’s own policies and that a renewal would damage its reputation.

The submission, put together by the group Culture Unstained, is part of an escalating campaign against the oil firm’s sponsorship of the museum, which is expected to make a decision about renewing the deal imminently.

It is signed by Sir Robert Watson, the former chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services; Naomi Oreskes, a professor of the history of science at Harvard University; and Rodney Harrison, a professor of heritage studies at University College London (UCL).

Other signatories include Willow Coningham, from the UK Student Climate Network; Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services union, which represents many British Museum staff; Paul Ekins, a professor of resources and environmental policy at UCL and the former co-director of the UK Energy Research Centre; Jonathon Porritt, the founder director of Forum for the Future; Hilary Jennings, the director of the Happy Museum Project; and Dr Chris Garrard, the co-director of Culture Unstained.

They highlight the many ways in which BP’s record regarding the climate crisis “clearly falls short of the scale and ambition of corporate responses that are now required”.

They call on the museum’s board of trustees to “fulfil their legal duties” by ensuring a due diligence process is undertaken before a decision is made about any new deal with the company.

Tru