BP's Sponsorship Of Egypt Exhibition At The British Museum Timed To COP27 Slammed
ampaigners including the musician Brian Eno, the author Ahdaf Soueif and the actor Miriam Margolyes have criticised BP’s sponsorship of an exhibition of Egyptian artefacts at the British Museum. The exhibition opens shortly before the critical Cop27 climate summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheikh this November.
The campaigners argue that “BP has partnered closely with successive governments and regimes in Egypt,” and that laws restricting freedom of expression and protest rights have quashed any potential pushback against BP’s fossil fuel extraction projects in the country.
In an open letter from Culture Unstained, a campaign group which focuses on ties between fossil fuel companies and the arts sector, to the British Museum signed by Eno, Soueif and Margolyes among others, the group said the institution “should not celebrate Egypt’s cultural past while ignoring the human rights situation in the present, or the climate impacts Egypt faces in the future”.
EDIT
BP has strong commercial ties with Egypt, partially due to the country’s large natural gas reserves. An Egyptian government report of a visit earlier this year between BP’s chief executive, Bernard Looney, and the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, described how Looney had lauded the president’s “wise leadership and ambitious vision”. Since coming to power in a military coup in 2013, Sisi has overseen a profound crackdown on free expression and human rights. Under his rule, public dissent is all but prohibited, although Egypt has tentatively stated it will allow protests during Cop27 in an area adjacent to the conference centre.
EDIT
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/oct/11/british-museum-urged-to-drop-bp-sponsor-deal-for-egypt-exhibition