This month, thousands of policymakers and climate leaders will gather in New York City with big ideas and solutions to address climate change, making the city the center of the global climate movement for one week.
These conversations matter. But as they take place, we can’t forget the New Yorkers living closest to those conversations, who still don’t have an adequate voice in where climate resources go.
In communities across New York, the effects of climate change are not felt equally. Neighborhoods with fewer trees and green spaces can experience more extreme heat and flooding, while communities that have historically received fewer environmental investments often have fewer resources to prepare for and respond to climate challenges.
Climate Week is incredibly important to progress, and if we want the momentum of this week to continue year-round, we must invest with communities, instead of just in them.
Growing up in Queens, I saw how access to environmental resources differs from one neighborhood to another, and it led me to take a vacant lot in my community and turn it into a shared garden.
These experiences left an impression, and they ultimately led me to create Project Petals, an award-winning nonprofit organization dedicated to revitalizing under-resourced and BIPOC communities disproportionately impacted by climate and environmental challenges.
Over the past decade, working alongside residents in local communities reinforced what I learned turning a neglected space into a resource for my community. Communities have ideas for improving neighborhoods, but they often lack the resources to put them into action.
The people who live in a community understand their community in ways no outside organization ever fully can.
They know which spaces are neglected, as I did. They know what their families and neighbors need, as I do. They know the obstacles that can keep a program from succeeding, as I do now.
Yet too often, communities are brought into the process after priorities have already been established. Residents are asked for input rather than given a meaningful role in determining what gets funded, where resources go and what success should look like.
Investing with communities requires us to listen first. It also means viewing residents not simply as beneficiaries, but as partners and leaders.
At Project Petals, I’ve seen what that looks like in practice.
Through our Youth Builders Fellowship, young people receive mentorship, resources, and opportunities to develop their own ideas and projects. Leadership grows when people are trusted with the opportunity and resources to lead.
Climate resilience is not built through individual projects alone, but by empowering communities to shape what comes next.
Doing that requires stronger connections among the nonprofits doing work on the ground, researchers developing new knowledge, policymakers shaping public resources, businesses bringing expertise and investment, philanthropists funding new ideas, and residents who understand their communities firsthand.
That spirit of collaboration is what Climate Week does so well. The opportunity is to carry it forward after the week ends.
For the policymakers, businesses, nonprofits, and philanthropists gathering in New York this month, I would offer three principles.
Listen before prescribing. Resource local leadership rather than simply asking communities for input. And invest in relationships that can continue long after a particular grant, program, or initiative ends.
At the end of Climate Week, the panels will conclude, and many visitors will leave New York. The communities we are discussing will still be here, continuing the work of making their neighborhoods healthier, safer, and more resilient.
When we measure the success of Climate Week, we should look beyond what is announced or discussed during one week in September and consider what those decisions make possible in the months and years ahead.
If we want lasting climate progress, we need to stop asking only what we can do for communities and start asking what we can build with them.
Alicia White is founder and executive director of Project Petals, an award-winning nonprofit restoring under-resourced communities disproportionately impacted by climate challenges. A Queens native, Alicia is an environmental justice advocate and highly decorated social entrepreneur with more than a decade of leadership driving environmental change through community empowerment and policy advocacy.