Europe is home to a significant number of CIFF’s climate investments. Across the region, CIFF-supported climate programmes are implemented under a variety of strategies, including cross-cutting targeted communications, air quality, and strategic litigation.

Throughout Europe, the European Climate Foundation (ECF) is seeking to strengthen climate leadership at every level, from supporting local campaigns to informing EU policy making. ECF is a network of hundreds of organisations devoted to solving the climate crisis from every angle. ECF helps set the agenda, innovate and strategise on a socially responsible transition to a net-zero emissions economy.

To effectively action CIFF’s air quality strategy, CIFF formally launched the Clean Air Fund at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2019. The Clean Air Fund is new philanthropic entity with an initial focus on air quality in the UK, India, and Eastern Europe, with the objective of increasing and implementing research, campaigning and policy change.

Another key strategy across Europe is the use of strategic litigation to enact policy change in favour of progressive, sustainable energy solutions. In Poland, CIFF’s long-standing and key grantee ClientEarth – a legal charity focussed on using litigation to fight against climate change and protect the environment – achieved two significant legal victories related to coal phase-out in 2019: terminating construction of the 1.6 Giga Watt Polnoc power plant and terminating development of the 1 Giga Watt Ostroleka C coal powerplant. These terminations prevented new coal capacity from increasing, resulting in coal phase out becoming an achievable reality for Poland by 2030.