Culture for Climate: On Earth Day and Every Day

At the European Cultural Foundation, we believe every foundation should be a climate foundation.

We don’t see this as a shift away from our cultural mission, but as a deepening of it. The climate crisis is not just an environmental issue; it is a societal one that touches every aspect of how we live, connect, and imagine our shared future. And culture, through storytelling, community action, and collective memory, is uniquely positioned to help navigate this transition.

Over the past years, we’ve better aligned our work with this urgency.

Through The Europe Challenge, libraries across Europe have mobilised their communities to address climate-related concerns—from installing beehives for biodiversity to engaging young people in projects that connect local action to global environmental goals.

Our Culture of Solidarity Fund – Just Transition edition has supported 15 transnational projects focused on sustainability and social justice. These projects, rooted in culture, inform regional policies and connect civic-led initiatives to systemic environmental change.

We’re also a proud partner in the CrAFt Cities initiative, which supports a network of 100 European cities in their transitions toward climate neutrality by embedding cultural and creative sectors into urban planning. And as a partner in the New European Bauhaus movement, we continue to advocate for beautiful, sustainable, and inclusive design as essential to Europe’s future.

Internally, we’ve implemented a train-first travel policy, are actively reviewing our building’s energy infrastructure, and have committed to an annual climate audit. In 2023, this helped us achieve a 37.3% reduction in CO₂ emissions compared to the previous year.

While all these are meaningful steps, we acknowledge that they are not enough and more can still be done. The scale of the climate crisis demands more imagination, urgency, collaboration across borders, sectors, and disciplines. Like many in our field, we’re still learning what it means to act in proportion to the emergency, and to embed climate justice not just in our projects, but in our values, partnerships, and institutional culture.

As our director André Wilkens put it:

“We all have to realise that climate is the most important issue of our times… Every foundation should address the climate crisis in the way it can do it best.”

On Earth Day—and every day—we recommit to this work. Culture can offer more than critique: it can offer agency and hope. It can connect people across borders to act collectively. It can also help us move from climate awareness to climate action, which is grounded in the values of solidarity, equity, and care.