London's Science Museum ends nearly 25-year BP sponsorship
The Science Museum in London confirmed on Friday 28 August 2026 that its sponsorship partnership with BP will end on 31 August 2026, closing a relationship that stretches back almost a quarter of a century. The museum said the deal was finishing "at the end of its agreed term" (The Art Newspaper).
BP told The Guardian that its support for the Science Museum Group Academy — the museum's training and outreach arm — would draw to a close on 31 August at the end of its agreed term (The Guardian). The Times reported that the current agreement, which began in 2018, had been described as a ten-year deal expected to run until 2028 (The Times). The partnership is ending two years earlier than that original schedule.
BP's name has been attached to the Science Museum since the early 2000s. The relationship covered sponsorship of the museum's former Energy Gallery and the 2015 exhibition "Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age," as well as support for a five-year collaboration between the Science Museum Group Academy and King's College London and University College London (The Art Newspaper).
The Times reported that the split came after BP abandoned its climate targets and returned its focus to increasing fossil fuel production (The Times). BP has not publicly commented on the reason for the partnership's conclusion beyond confirming the end date.
The Science Museum has faced sustained pressure over its fossil fuel sponsors. Teachers pledged to boycott school trips to the museum until it cut ties with both BP and Adani Green Energy, in a campaign backed by the National Education Union (The Art Newspaper). Adani Green Energy, which sponsors the museum's Energy Revolution gallery, is part of the Adani Group — the world's largest private developer of coal mines.
The BP split is not an isolated departure. In 2024, the Science Museum ended its sponsorship agreement with the Norwegian oil and gas company Equinor after internal correspondence showed the company's business plans failed to align with Paris Agreement goals and breached the museum's own climate benchmarks (The Art Newspaper). The British Museum separately ended its 27-year BP sponsorship deal in 2023 (Arts Professional).
Trustees and advisers have also walked. Mathematician and broadcaster Hannah Fry and scientist Jo Foster resigned from the Science Museum Group's board of trustees in 2021 after discussions over accepting Adani Green Energy sponsorship. Climate scientist Chris Rapley, a former director of the Science Museum itself, resigned from its advisory board over the institution's willingness to accept oil and gas funding (The Art Newspaper).
The Science Museum Group has consistently defended its approach. The institution has stated that it achieves public good through its corporate partnerships and retains editorial control over all content. It has also publicly acknowledged accepting sponsorship from companies directly involved in fossil fuel extraction, including BP and Equinor.
What remains is the Adani question. The museum's Energy Revolution gallery continues to bear the Adani Green Energy name, and the NEU-backed teacher boycott was aimed at both sponsors. With BP now departing, attention turns to whether that remaining partnership holds.
