The New York Times has withdrawn its sponsorship of a prominent oil industry conference in London following pressure and protests from climate scientists.



The Oil and Money conference, now in its 40th year and scheduled to take place Oct. 8–10, attracts senior executives from the energy sector. But after climate activist groups, including Extinction Rebellion, staged large protests outside of the Times's headquarters in New York, the publication decided to end its relationship with the conference.

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"Over the last several years The Times has significantly expanded its reporting on climate change and its impact, as well as broader investigative and explanatory coverage of energy and environmental policy,” the Times said in a statement. "We have large team focused solely on the topic and in the last year alone we've traveled to every continent to document the effects of a warming planet."



“We want there to be no question of our independence or even the potential appearance of a conflict of interest," it adds. "We wish Energy Intelligence well as they continue to gather energy leaders, policy makers and environmentalists to discuss how to sustainably meet the world's rising energy needs."

The New York Times has ended its sponsorship of the annual Oil and Money conference, now in its 40th year. Read the statement from NYT spokeswoman Eileen Murphy. pic.twitter.com/RUdkdIFXjL — NYT Climate (@nytclimate) September 3, 2019