Adani paid £4mn to sponsor green energy wing of London’s Science Museum

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Indian billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani paid £4mn to sponsor the green energy wing of London’s Science Museum, a contentious tie up that sparked protests and scrutiny of his conglomerate’s extensive coal business.

UK Cabinet Office documents reveal for the first time the amount paid by Adani Group’s renewable power arm for the sponsorship deal, which opened the museum up to allegations of green washing and prompted the resignation of two trustees.

The records were obtained through a Freedom of Information request made by activist group Culture Unstained and shared with the Financial Times.

Adani’s influential business empire, which ranges from ports to media, has emerged as India’s largest renewable energy producer, while remaining one of the country’s biggest private coal mining and trading groups.

The group has been under scrutiny since early 2023 when it was accused of “brazen” corporate fraud by US short seller Hindenburg Research. Adani has vehemently denied the allegations.

In November, the US justice department and Securities and Exchange Commission charged the group’s billionaire founder Gautam Adani and other executives in connection with an alleged $265mn Indian solar power bribery scheme. Adani Group has called the accusations “baseless”.

Science Museum Group chief executive Sir Ian Blatchford, who has in the past stridently defended sponsorship from oil and gas companies, has come under criticism over the Adani deal, particularly the decision to continue the relationship after the Indian billionaire was indicted in the US.

The institution has also faced protests from environmental campaigners over its renewable power exhibition Energy Revolution: The Adani Green Energy Gallery, which opened last year.

Other UK museums have attracted criticism for their relationships with fossil fuel groups, for example the British Museum’s controversial £50mn funding deal with BP in 2023.

The £4mn Adani sponsorship compares with the Science Museum Group’s income of £125.7mn in 2023-24.

The Science Museum said it did not discuss the details of individual sponsorship contracts as they were commercially sensitive. The museum was monitoring the US legal proceedings in line with its internal due diligence processes, it said.

The museum added it was pleased to have welcomed more than half a million visitors to its Energy Revolution gallery “made possible by generous sponsorship from Adani Green Energy, a major renewable energy business”.

The Cabinet Office documents also reveal that during an April 2022 meeting with former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson at Adani’s headquarters in Ahmedabad, western India, the tycoon said his ambition was to create a “BAE of India” during discussions on defence partnerships and potential UK investments.

Adani Group is one of a number of powerful Indian conglomerates building up their defence businesses as New Delhi opens up the sector to private players. In the Ahmedabad meeting Johnson “noted the UK’s desire for partnership on projects such as the Future Combat Air System and naval propulsion”.

The Indian billionaire said “his aim was to produce a ‘BAE of India’, covering intelligence, reconnaissance and cyber; air defence; unmanned platforms; and a fifth generation of fighter aircraft” and that he hoped to speak to the UK’s defence secretary, which Johnson “welcomed”, according to a record of the meeting.

The meeting record also mentioned that Adani Group “was investing in hydrogen production and thought that India could in time be a major exporter, including to the UK”. A separate briefing document states that the conglomerate was in talks with Sheffield-based green hydrogen technology company ITM Power.

Summaries of meetings between Johnson and Adani in October 2021 and April 2022, a period when US prosecutors allege the Indian tycoon was orchestrating the solar energy bribery scheme, also reveal that his infrastructure-focused conglomerate was “finalising the paperwork” to list one of its businesses on the London Stock Exchange, which has yet to materialise.

Another briefing note was also prepared ahead of the prime minister’s “brush by” meeting at the UK’s Global Investment Summit in October 2021 with Adani, who it said would be accompanied by the Science Museum’s Blatchford and then chair Dame Mary Archer.

The note urged Johnson to “seek Adani’s views on next steps for green investments, and ask where government support would be most helpful, especially around ports, logistics, hydrogen and data centres”.

It also states that Adani Group was looking for a platform at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow to announce net zero plans, even though “their natural resources business remains a challenge”.

On the sidelines of a Science Museum launch event last year for the Adani-sponsored green energy wing, Adani told the FT he was looking at potential investments in the UK, but that his main focus remained on India’s “massive market”.

Adani Group did not respond to a request for comment. The Cabinet Office, ITM Power, LSE and Johnson did not respond to requests for comment.