State of Climate Politics Forum 2026
State of Climate Politics Forum 2026 - Event Production
E3G, an independent climate change think tank working on the politics of the transition
Mansion House, City of London
Role: Event Producer (4 months, third consecutive edition)
Produce E3G's flagship diplomacy forum for the third year running, filling the Egyptian Hall with 386 senior guests from 45 countries and speakers including Ana Toni as CEO of COP30, President Whipps of Palau, Teresa Ribera as EVP of the European Commission, the COP30 and COP31 Youth Champions, and Nick Mabey for E3G.
Context:
The State of Climate Politics Forum is E3G's flagship event on climate diplomacy and a flagship of London Climate Action Week. It exists to put the people who influence climate politics in one room: COP presidencies, ministers and state secretaries, heads of state, climate councils, city mayors, investors and the researchers tracking public consent for the transition. 2026 was the third edition and the theme was cooperation in a fractured world, running from an opening on the climate emergency through geopolitics, divided domestic politics and a new generation of climate leadership, to a closing keynote on what renewed cooperation looks like in the second half of the decade.
The Challenge:
E3G is a think tank, not an events organisation. Its people are policy specialists with full programmes of their own, and the forum had grown every year to the point where the third edition needed a scale of production the internal team could not absorb alongside the day job.
Diplomatic diaries also mean the programme and speaker line-up firms up relatively late, so the programme had to stay flexible until close to the day without the guest experience showing it. And 2026 was even bolder in its ambition because SoCP was the opening act of Mansion House Day, involving the coordination of 6 events across the day at Mansion House involving multiple VVIPS. This is still the most ambitious run of show DisCom has ever produced.
The Work:
I brought in a DisCom of two to work as an E3G resource, working inside the E3G team. Thanks to the events playbook, and the strong trust and relationships we had in place both at E3G, with existing suppliers, and at at the venue, we delivered the best ever edition.
Setting up the weekly checkins and the tiger teams and whatsapp groups
Supporting the programme design with E3G's policy leads to shape six sessions into a cohesive narrative
Speaker management across around 20 speakers spanning heads of state, ministers, state secretaries, mayors and CEOs
Coordinating the briefing documents, one per session, so every panellist and moderator arrived knowing their talking points, their role in it and who else was on the stage.
Production end to end: including supplier sourcing, venue and AV, registration and approvals on Luma, guest comms, run of show, speaker room and a well-staffed sign-in desk with back-up.
Protocol and security coordination with government and delegation teams travelling with the principals.
A structured post-event debrief with the E3G team to capture what worked and what to evolve, plus the write-up that gives the team something to hand to next year's edition rather than starting from memory. Three years in, that accumulated playbook is why the forum has been able to grow each year without the internal team growing with it.
SoCP in numbers
386 attendees from 544 registrations, a 70% show up rate.
Guest feedback 4.1 out of 5. 46% UK and 54% international across 45 countries.
Nearly seven in ten guests at lead level or above, with C-suite, founders and executive directors making up 20% and director and head level another 25%.
The room split NGO 25%, civil society 24%, business 15%, central government 13%, funders and philanthropy 10%, with media, academia, institutional and political leaders making up the rest.
“Liz is an absolute power house and a joy to work with. I've worked with her for the last three years on London Climate Action Week's flagship event - the State of Climate Politics Forum. With each year, this event has grown in scale, impact, and quality, and this is no small part because of Liz's talent for connection, her energy, and her dedication to the climate mission. I'm lucky to call Liz a colleague and can't wait for what we will build together for LCAW and climate action in the coming years!”
Genevieve Marsh, Chief of Staff, E3G
Guest feedback
"Great range of speakers who spoke both powerfully and coherently. The event felt well furnished. Thank you to E3G for hosting such an engaging event."
"Well organized, good speakers representing some big issues, good moderators. Very full range of topics."
"I particularly appreciated the session on a new generation of climate leadership."
