Climate and Environment
The impact of environmental crises, like climate change and biodiversity loss, are being felt by people in every part of the world. It impacts our health, our jobs, our education, the food we eat, the places we live. There’s no philanthropy on a dead planet and fortunately, foundations have both the power and a responsibility to act.
Environmental crises disproportionately impact vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, and the communities who have contributed the least face the greatest risks.
In the face of this, philanthropy can play a critical role, catalysing the change that is needed for people and for our planet. At Philea, we want to play our part in increasing the share and quality of philanthropy’s contribution towards tackling the climate and other environmental crises by strengthening philanthropic infrastructure, generating evidence and encouraging peer-learning.
We also pay attention to how the climate emergency interacts with Philea’s other 2 cross-cutting focus areas: democracy and equality.
Spotlighting Climate and Environment in 2026
Why now?
Recent momentum feels fragile: Climate and environmental commitments – both in philanthropy and in government – are facing opposition. Political shifts, economic pressures and competing priorities have led to a worrying slowdown, both in ambition and action, with severe consequences for people and nature.
What we’ll do:
Building on our longstanding work in this area, Philea will spotlight climate and environment across 2026. Through this, we intend to:
- Support the recognition of climate and environmental crises as cross-cutting and interconnected with broader societal challenges, including democracy and equality, both in terms of their root causes and impacts
- Expand climate and environmental conversations to engage foundations and philanthropy infrastructure organisations
- Surface complex, overlooked or challenging issues that are frequently neglected in philanthropic agendas, including the internal practices of foundations
- Equip and encourage philanthropy practitioners to translate insights gathered into action
- Show progress in the implementation of our own internal sustainability policy.
Philanthropy For Climate Framework
Philanthropy For Climate, through its national, regional and international commitments, offers a holistic framework for all foundations, regardless of focus area, size or location, to integrate climate across their work.
Philea’s Climate Coalition works in partnership with WINGS to support and scale the global Philanthropy For Climate movement.
Get inspired
Understanding the ecosystem:
- Environmental Funding by European Foundations, vol. 7
- Climate Change and Philanthropy Infrastructure: Supporting the Ecosystem to Act
Integrating climate from governance to grantmaking – whatever your mission:
- How to Integrate Climate into Your Philanthropic Programmes: What Foundations Need to Know, and Where to Begin
- How Foundations Can Integrate Equity and Justice into Their Climate Journeys
- Philanthropy for Climate: State of the Movement Report 2026
- International Philanthropy Commitment on Climate Change: Progress Report 2
Supporting place-based approaches to a just transition:
Opinions from the sector
- What if philanthropy’s biggest risk is being late? | Joshua Amponsem, Youth Climate Justice Fund
- Forewarned is forearmed: Why philanthropy should act before a crisis unfolds | Jessica Anderen and Hayley Kornblum, IKEA Foundation
- Reimagining philanthropy’s role in Africa’s Just Transition: From vulnerability to agency | Beatrice Hazeldine Makwenda, TrustAfrica
- Things are getting heated: What philanthropy can do to integrate mental health into extreme heat solutions | Anneke Kirsch, Active Philanthropy
- Scotland’s Just Transition won’t happen without philanthropy – here’s why | Mercedes Jones, Foundation Scotland
- The biodiversity blind spot: Why your endowment is your most powerful response to the nature crisis | Kate Rudd, Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity, University of York
- The city we want to live in by 2050: Using philanthropy to shape the future | Paul Vinot, Fonds Paris 2050
- Philanthropy, people, planet, pressure… and progress? | Delphine Moralis, Philea
- Agriculture and food systems: The new frontier for (climate) philanthropy | Ana Bojadjievska, Robert Bosch Stiftung GmbH and Trees Robijns, European Climate Foundation
- From ambition to delivery: How European philanthropy can do more to deliver for people and the planet | Sonia Medina, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation
- Just Transition: A new attempt to square the circle | Christina Aebischer, Helvetas
- Why the Mediterranean must become a testing ground for the SDGs | Cvjetana Plavsa-Matic, National Foundation for Civil Society Development – Croatia
- There’s no philanthropy on a dead planet: 5 steps every foundation can take to be climate and environment ready | Karalyn Gardner, Philea
Get involved
All of Philea’s networks and communities are invited to explore how climate and environment are connected to their own areas of work.
For foundations looking for a dedicated space to explore issues related to climate and environment, the networks and communities below are the best place to start:
