THE SOVEREIGNTY & LIBERATION SUMMIT

AT CLIMATE WEEK NYC 2026

At Climate Week NYC this year, Taproot Earth is joining partners across the reparative climate action movement to turn a global moment of attention into an opportunity for coordinated movement power.

While much of Climate Week in New York City centers corporate strategies, the Sovereignty & Liberation Summit, happening Wednesday, September 23, will center non-extractive solutions and possibilities growing from the frontlines.

This is a strategic coming together of organizations across the U.S. who understand the influence and possibilities of Climate Week NYC 2026 toward addressing the global climate crisis.

This day of Sovereignty & Liberation focuses on uplifting solutions from the frontlines. Through a mix of invitation-only gatherings and public events across New York, the Sovereignty & Liberation Summit at Climate Week NYC centers learning, connection, and power building that grows from coordinated movement.

This is the first time so many organizations have come together to align their individual agendas toward the collective goals of a movement. There are many pathways to advance the climate justice movement on this day. Explore the day and find where you can join us.

*this event is invitation only.

Black Femme Climate UNITY Breakfast

Wed, September 23, 2026 from 8:00 to 10:00 am ET

The Black Femme Climate Unity Breakfast, hosted by Black Girl Kinda Green, People’s Climate Innovation Center, Ubuntu Climate Initiative, and U.S. Climate Action Network, brings multiple generations of Black women leaders together to assess this moment in the climate crisis and explore the role of the divine feminine in shaping what comes next.

Centered in the shared space will be community power, collective wisdom, and wellness of Black femme environmental leaders leading liberation work.

*this event is invitation only.

funder briefing: the hive fund

Wed, September 23, 2026 from 9:30 to 11:00 am ET

The Hive Fund for Climate and Gender Justice supports organizations building power for a just transition from dirty to clean energy, with a focus on the U.S. South and multiyear, flexible funding for groups led by Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Asian American and Pacific Islander women and gender-nonconforming leaders.

Hosted by the Hive Fund team, this invite-only funder briefing will create space for frontline leaders to speak directly with philanthropy about the realities communities are navigating, the solutions already taking shape, and what it takes to resource lasting climate justice, redistribute power, and sustain healthier, safer, more prosperous communities for generations to come.

*this event is invitation only.

Investing in Resiliency Hubs and Community Defense

Wed, September 23, 2026 from 9:30 to 11:00 am ET

Frontline communities are building the infrastructure needed to strengthen resilience, defend their communities, and respond to a changing climate on their own terms.

Hosted by Kataly Foundation’s Environmental Justice Resourcing Collective and Surdna Foundation, this invite-only funder briefing will bring philanthropy into direct conversation with frontline organizers about what communities are building, what they are learning, and what meaningful investment looks like to resource community-led solutions, strengthen long-term infrastructure, and sustain the power needed to meet the challenges ahead.

Wed, September 23, 2026 from 12:00 to 3:00 pm ET

NYU School of Law, Lipton Hall, New York, NY

Hosted by Taproot Earth, the Just Transition Lawyering Network, the Global Justice Clinic and the Bernstein Institute for Human Rights at NYU Law, this three-hour gathering will bring movement leaders, legal practitioners, and frontline advocates into two connected conversations exploring how law, climate finance, and climate migration can advance pathways toward repair.

Together, the sessions will examine emerging legal strategies alongside frontline approaches to building power, directing resources, and advancing the rights to remain, migrate, and return. Registration is required and closes at 5 PM ET on Monday, September 21.

Critical Minerals and the Roots of the Green Energy Supply Chain

Wed, September 23, 2026 from 4:00 to 6:00 pm ET

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, NY

Ndjimu (Deep Cobalt), is an award-winning documentary from Congolese filmmaker Petna Ndaliko Katondolo that confronts the human and environmental costs embedded at the roots of the global green energy supply chain.

Hosted by Friends of the Congo and Basandja Coalition, this screening and conversation will bring attention to the communities at the source of the minerals powering the global energy transition and the realities too often obscured further along the supply chain. Together, participants will consider what a transition to a greener economy requires when justice, community power, and the people and places bearing its costs are centered.

*this event is invitation only.

Green Leadership Trust Reception

Wed, September 23, 2026 from 9:30 to 11:00 am ET

The Green Leadership Trust is a network of people of color serving on national and global climate and environmental boards and using their positions to advance environmental justice and equity within the institutions shaping the field.

This invite-only reception will bring members together for an evening of relationship building, information sharing, and connection, creating space to strengthen the relationships and leadership needed to shift power and advance a more just environmental movement.