Local minority languages and dialects, through the local knowledge and expertise associated with them, can play major roles in analysing climate change and biodiversity loss, in facilitating community awareness of environmental crises and in setting up locally‐adapted resilience and sustainability strategies. While the situation and contribution of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples are of emblematic importance, the issue of the relationships between cultural and linguistic diversity and environmental awareness and protection does not solely concern peripheral highly‐specialized communities in specific ecosystems of the Global South, but constitutes a worldwide challenge, throughout all of the countries, whatever their geographical location, their economical development, or their political status. Environmental emergency and climate change resilience should therefore raise international awareness on the need to promote the survival and development of minority languages and dialects and to take into account their creativity and expertise in relation to the dynamics of their local environments. Local languages and dialects are essential for nurturing connections with the environment, facilitating early perception of environmental modifications, monitoring these modifications, and adapting local processes and practices of environmental protection and management to climate change resilience, sustainability and food security. Environmental emergency and climate change resilience should raise awareness on the need to promote the survival and development of minority languages and to take into account the creativity and expertise of minority languages in relation to their local cultures and environments.