From ambition to delivery: How European philanthropy can do more to deliver for people and the planet

Europe stands at a crossroads. With public trust strained, the cost of living increasing and political incentives consistently favouring the short-term over the structural, it’s harder than ever for civil society to make the case for climate action. At the same time, the social and economic impacts of global warming are undeniable, and it’s those who have contributed the least to climate change who feel the worst of its impact – in particular, children. This demands decisions that are collective, long-term and difficult.

The challenges are inseparable. Europe’s climate successes to-date have been underpinned by strong government action and regulation. Continued action depends on institutional capacity and public legitimacy – and both require a resilient and effective civil society ecosystem. Civil society plays a vital role in making regulation tangible in people’s daily lives: highlighting who risks being left behind, surfacing distributional impacts, and bringing evidence into public debate. An ecosystem which can work together confidently is not a nice-to-have; it is a precondition for Europe’s ability to reduce emissions and deliver a prosperous future for everyone.

The European success story has been a democratic one – regulation has protected citizens from unchecked market power, ensured collective security and delivered shared prosperity. This approach has enabled Europe to translate climate ambition into enforceable obligations: from carbon markets and corporate due diligence to deforestation rules and financial regulation. It is one of the world’s most effective systems for climate governance. When done well, European regulation does not stop at Europe’s borders: it helps raise ambition and create political and practical space for delivery elsewhere, reinforcing a virtuous cycle between strong governance at home and climate progress globally.

But regulation only delivers when institutional capacity and public trust keep pace with ambition. That is where Europe is now vulnerable – and where climate progress can stall. Economic uncertainty and global instability are increasing pressure to weaken and delay regulation. Simultaneously, political polarisation and disinformation are making it harder to sustain public support. When enforcement weakens, industry pressure grows – leaving regulation exposed to both rollback and gradual erosion.

It is also true that the climate transition has not always delivered fairly for everyone. Policies – often affecting people’s daily costs and livelihoods – have not always been implemented consistently, and in some cases, complexity has exceeded what institutions can realistically deliver. Where climate policy has felt disconnected from people’s everyday realities – especially during cost‑of‑living pressures – backlash has followed. These are not reasons to step back from climate ambition. They are warning signals that climate policy must be designed and delivered with fairness, clarity and credible transition support.

Retreat and uncertainty do not restore trust; they deepen cynicism and invite delay. The real task is harder, but essential: strengthening Europe’s capacity to show climate leadership, based on the established public mandate – with legitimacy, enforceability, and fairness – so that ambition translates into durable outcomes. For Europe’s children, the credibility of our climate governance will shape the air they breathe, the stability of their communities and the opportunities available to them as they grow. Ensuring that climate ambition translates into delivery is how democratic consent is earned – and how it is sustained across generations.

What this means for philanthropy

This is a turning point for European philanthropy – not because philanthropy can replace the state, but because it can help defend and renew the conditions that make effective climate governance possible.

Philanthropy can adapt, move faster, fund more flexibly and support organisations under pressure. But the present moment requires more than responsiveness. It calls for a clear strategy beyond climate-specific programmes, and instead, strengthening the foundations which make government action on climate possible.

Three shifts are particularly urgent.

First: move upstream – defend organisational capacity, not just policies. Supporting individual climate policies is no longer enough. Philanthropy must also help strengthen civil society’s capacity in the face of economic pressure, geopolitical uncertainty and coordinated disinformation.

That means investing in the less-visible foundations of governance: institutional resilience, evidence systems and the connective tissue that allows civil society to coordinate effectively at national and European levels. It means backing organisations that track enforcement and evaluate outcomes – the machines that turn ambition into delivery.

Second: fund durability, not perpetual crisis response. Rapid-response funding is necessary, but it is not a strategy. If civil society is core climate infrastructure, it needs infrastructure-grade funding: multi-year support, core operating grants, leadership development and the ability to retain talent and build technical depth.

This also requires confronting trust within the funding ecosystem – including persistent gaps between how funders and grantees perceive risk, legitimacy and responsiveness. When the work we do is so urgent, civil society organisations cannot spend half their time chasing short-term grants and justifying their existence. Durable funding shifts organisations from short-term survival to long-term resilience – it is capacity-building for democratic climate governance.

Third: build a stronger European funding base. Europe’s climate and civic ecosystems remain heavily reliant on philanthropic capital from outside the continent. But over-reliance on external sources exposes the ecosystem to geopolitical risk and regulatory shifts – precisely at a moment when stability and continuity matter most.

European philanthropy – including institutional, corporate and individual giving – must mobilise at greater scale and in more coordinated ways. Diversifying funding partnerships is not only prudent; it anchors legitimacy within Europe and strengthens the long-term resilience of the organisations that hold climate governance together.

Finally, philanthropy has a distinctive role in creating and protecting spaces where civil society, governments and the private sector can engage constructively, supporting credible, evidence-based approaches and enabling engagement with non-traditional actors and sectors such as security, trade and corporate leaders. We know many philanthropies across Europe share our objective, to ensure our climate is healthy and stable, enabling children to thrive. To achieve this, we encourage European philanthropy to act collectively and at scale, to think bigger than individual climate programmes and invest in civil society ecosystems and anchor climate governance within Europe’s democratic institutions. We invite funders and networks to use this year’s Philea Forum, dedicated to people and planet, as a space to translate this ambition into shared action.