Black Climate Week 2026

What is Black Climate Week?

February 2026 marks Black Climate Week’s 6th year, as well as a century of national commemorations of Black history. This year, we are centering cities with a strong Black community as the definitive hubs of climate innovation and justice. Black communities aren’t just surviving climate change—they’re solving it.

Black Climate Week is being led by The Solutions Project and NAACP this year, and we are inviting hundreds of organizations, creators, elected officials join in this year. This campaign is about the collective momentum of thousands of stories that inspire ongoing justice-led climate action. 

From developing community-owned solar projects to fighting environmental racism, Black-led organizations are proving that the best climate solutions come from those closest to the problems. Through online storytelling, in-person events, and press engagement, Black Climate Week fosters learning, inspires activism, and garners support for climate justice.

This year we are also spotlighting Black-led resistance to AI data centers that are being disproportionately sited in communities of color. Big Tech is following in Big Oil’s footsteps, deliberately building data centers in disempowered cities with large Black populations, banking on communities not having the local power to fight back. Black communities aren’t waiting for permission to protect themselves. The resistance to fight back originated in many Black communities to mobilize, organize, and strategize hyper-local actions to global next steps.

Join: February 21-28, 2026

Why is This Important?

Building Solutions that Benefit All

Black communities across the country are developing innovative, community-powered climate solutions that work. From local farms providing fresh food in California to solar-powered water projects in South Carolina, Black-led initiatives are proving that the best climate solutions come from those closest to the problems. While federal leadership waivers, cities are proving they have the power to drive real climate action.

Research shows that funding local, frontline climate groups allows for increased impact because they design solutions that simultaneously benefit local people and the planet. Black-led organizations are securing major policy victories and developing clean energy projects with the potential to dramatically reduce carbon emissions.

• • In 2020, only 0.5% of philanthropy dollars went to environmental justice organizations. That’s only $25-50 million of the $471 billion that donors gave to nonprofits in 2020. That’s about how much The Nature Conservancy raises every week.
  • More than half of Black Americans live where hurricanes and floods are getting worse. They live in the South, where climate change is causing stronger hurricanes and increased flooding.
  • Black communities are more vulnerable to severe weather and floods. This is a holdover of redlining and housing segregation.
  • Polluted air can trigger asthma, putting Black communities at higher risk. That’s because they have an almost 3 times higher chance of going to the hospital or dying from an asthma attack than whites.
  • Environmental justice communities have been led by Black, Indigenous and immigrant folks for decades. The communities have always been there, but the story hasn’t been told.
  • Climate justice is racial justice, and racial justice is climate justice. It’s communities disproportionately affected (by climate change and inequity) who will understand the problems more holistically and know how to solve them.