Royal Opera House ends BP sponsorship
'By bringing down the curtain on fossil fuel funding, the Royal Opera House can now play a leading role in creating the culture beyond oil we so urgently need.’
Friends welcomed the news that, after thirty-three years, the Royal Opera House (ROH) has ended its sponsorship by the oil and gas giant BP. Campaigners hailed it as a ‘seismic shift’ after a ROH representative admitted that it is ‘no longer in receipt of BP money’ in answer to an audience question on climate change at an ROH event.
The ROH move follows The Royal Shakespeare Company, National Portrait Gallery, and National Galleries Scotland, which have all cut BP sponsorship links in recent years, following major campaigns supported by many Quakers. The British Museum is yet to announce whether it will renew BP sponsorship with its five-year deal ending this month.
Chris Garrard, a composer and co-director of Culture Unstained, said: ‘What we are witnessing is a seismic shift, a near wholesale rejection across the arts of BP’s brand and the climate-wrecking business it represents. By bringing down the curtain on fossil fuel funding, the Royal Opera House can now play a leading role in creating the culture beyond oil we so urgently need.’
The ROH has been the subject of many protests over recent years and criticised for allowing BP to ‘artwash’ its brand. In 2019 over two hundred leading figures in music wrote to Sadiq Khan, London mayor, urging him to withdraw permission for its ‘BP Big Screens’ to take place in Trafalgar Square, if ROH continued with BP branding and sponsorship.
BP plans to spend up to £6.2bn for oil and gas projects next year, despite claims of going ‘net zero’. These include high-risk extraction methods such as ultra-deepwater drilling and fracking. Less than two per cent of its investments have gone into low carbon energy from 2010-2018.
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