Event Production: State of Climate Politics Forum 2026
E3G, an independent climate change think tank working on the politics of the transition
Location: Mansion House, City of London
Role: Event Producer (4 months, third consecutive edition)
Producing 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.
The 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 marked 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 their day job.
Diplomatic diaries also meant the programme and speaker line-up firmed 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 six events across the day involving multiple VVIPS. This was the most ambitious run of show DisCom has ever produced.
The Work
DisCom worked as an E3G resource inside the team. Thanks to our events playbook, and the strong trust and relationships we had in place at E3G, with existing suppliers, and at the venue, we delivered the best ever edition.
Setting up the weekly check-ins, 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 20 speakers spanning heads of state, ministers, state secretaries, mayors and CEOs.
Coordinating the briefing documents 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 a write-up that gives the team something to hand to next year's edition, rather than starting from memory. Three years in, this accumulated playbook is why the forum has been able to grow each year without the internal team growing with it.
State of Climate Politics 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."
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