Sustainability: our public programme

As a group of museums that lead the world in science education, helping the public to understand the science of climate change is a key focus for our public programme.

At the Science Museum, work is underway on Energy Revolution: The Adani Green Energy Gallery, a major new gallery opening in 2023 that explores the latest climate science and the steps needed to cut global dependence on fossil fuels. We also strive to inspire the public with digital resources and online content that explores current scientific research and the technologies that can help reduce the impact of climate change.

The Science Museum Group has made a commitment to reach net zero by 2033—covering both the carbon footprint of our own operations and our supply chain. Behind the scenes we ensure the major projects across our museums have sustainable working practices at their core, helping create a sustainable legacy for the future.

Climate films

Delve into the science of climate change and discover more through these films exploring often-asked questions.

Climate talks

Book our latest series of online Climate Talks with an international line of experts, campaigners and cultural figures, discussing how to tackle the most pressing issues around climate change. Our previous series of talks is also available to watch now.

Book Climate Talks now

Exhibitions

Innovation Platform

Free exhibition, National Railway Museum
15 June 2022 – June 2024
This inventive new exhibition, with four themed seasons, will inspire visitors with the ingenuity at work in rail. Innovation Platform highlights emerging ideas and extraordinary achievements from across the rail industry, with the next season focused on the latest groundbreaking rail technology in Decarbonisation (from 18 January – June 2023).

Galleries

Original air-sampling flask used by Charles David Keeling

Energy Revolution: The Adani Green Energy Gallery

Free gallery, Science Museum—opens 2024
A landmark new gallery will examine how the world can undergo the fastest energy transition in history to curb climate change. Four thematic sections—Alternative Futures, Future Planet, Future Energy and Power and Future Living—will each provide a different lens on this century’s defining challenge, using interactive and digital storytelling techniques to explore energy revolutions of the past and future.

Technicians: The David Sainsbury Gallery

Free interactive gallery, Science Museum
Open daily, 10.00–18.00
Step into an interactive world of careers in the Science Museum’s new gallery and explore the hidden yet crucial world of technicians and experience the vital tasks they perform each day. The gallery invites visitors to discover more about technicians working in the renewable energy sector—you can have a go at fixing problems on a wind turbine or drive a remotely operated vehicle checking electricity cables on the ocean floor.

Engineers

Free object gallery, Science Museum
Open daily, 10.00–18.00
Explore the incredible stories behind world-changing innovations in this new gallery at the Science Museum. Human stories are at the heart of the iconic objects on display, which include the most recent winner of the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering—the PERC Solar Photovoltaic technology which has been crucial in making high performance, low-cost solar electricity possible.

Online content

Our Environment

Explore stories about our environment and sustainability through our collection.

Learning

Our Learning teams are delivering a range of activities, shows and demonstrations to engage all ages in climate science and sustainability, as well as providing resources to do this at home and in the classroom.

For updates on our programme, sign up to our email newsletters.

Past Activities

Climate change has been a recurrent theme in the Science Museum Group’s public programme, with exhibitions including The Rubbish Collection (2014), an art installation made of waste, and Unlocking Lovelock (2015) at the Science Museum. Manchester Science Festival featured the Lovelock Art Commission from 2014-16, while Luke Jerram’s spectacular artwork Gaia was displayed as part of the National Science and Media Museum’s Hello Universe exhibition in 2019.

As part of the Science Museum Group’s climate focused public programme in 2021 the Science and Industry Museum hosted a climate-themed Manchester Science Festival and the National Science and Media Museum hosted a climate-themed Bradford Science Festival.

In 2021 the Science Museum opened two climate-themed exhibitions. Our Future Planet explores innovative solutions from the natural (trees) to the mechanical (direct air capture machines) to reduce carbon levels in our atmosphere. While Amazônia, which featured over 200 images captured by acclaimed photographer Sebastião Salgado over the course of seven years travelling through the Amazon, presents Salgado’s dramatic panoramas of this incredible region and portraits of its people.