Funders Forum: Edition Cyprus EU Council Presidency

Programme

The ocean is both origin and engine, sustaining life, shaping climate, and supporting economies, yet its future depends on whether we can recognise its value not only in principle, but in how we act, invest, and lead.

The session opens with a short framing of the challenge, why ports and port seascapes have become the most consequential arenas in which the maritime transition is being worked through in practice, and why the conditions for philanthropic, public and private capital to act coherently across them remain absent.

The discussion then moves to the coalition question: what architecture would be required to connect the actors whose decisions are already interdependent across decarbonisation, ocean observation, and water, biodiversity and coastal resilience, and what each form of capital, from philanthropy to long-term institutional investment, would need to contribute for that architecture to hold.

The working session is structured as a founders' table. A…