What images come to mind when you think of memorable climate wins in the last few years? We're willing to bet it is not a picture of legislators poring over a greenhouse gas bill, or of green-tech CEOs in a boardroom. What you probably think of is everyday people, marching and demonstrating and demanding action. Perhaps you envision the indigenous protesters at Standing Rock, whose success at keeping fossil fuels in the ground captured the world's attention. Or maybe you see the Black and brown activists in New York who stopped the encroachment of commercial developments and demanded green manufacturing jobs instead. With few resources and little material support, communities of color have done more to mitigate climate change in a few years than many well-funded and well-known organizations have managed to do in decades.

Now that President Biden has pledged a "Climate Administration" and philanthropies are poised to give greater focus to addressing climate change, it is urgent that we aim the country's attention on a part of the climate movement that often gets siloed or dismissed as ancillary to the cause of solving the climate crisis: the grassroots Black, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC)-led powerbuilding groups that center justice in all the work they do. These groups understand what many white activists — however well-intentioned — fail to see: without the power, boldness and genius of BIPOC communities, we will not defeat climate change. We are not ancillary. We are necessary.

Right now, major philanthropies are directing billions of dollars in grants to organizations doing climate work; only 1.3% of that goes to justice-focused groups led by and serving BIPOC communities. That's not a typo. Place 1.3% against the backdrop of everything that has happened this year: In the wake of George Floyd's murder, the biggest foundations in the country tripped over themselves to release statements of solidarity and support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

Read the full article about supporting communities of color for climate justice by Colette Pichon Battle and Miya Yoshitani at Salon.