When the Climatebase team organized the first San Francisco Climate Week in the spring of 2023, climate action in the United States looked very different than it does today. The Inflation Reduction Act was just a few months old, but had invigorated the United States’ role as a climate leader with a political and economic investment that directed billions into emerging clean energy industries. America’s technological prowess had finally been matched by a moment of political wisdom that would point its innovative spirit toward a crisis that, despite rarely making headlines, has proven to be an underlying concern for a wide swathe of Americans.

The time was right, then, to put together a week-long event that would bring together the disparate wings of an emerging climate coalition in the American city where environmental activism and technological progress has flourished side by side for decades.

Three years later, the backdrop for climate action has changed. While Americans’ concern over climate impacts has remained high, the momentum toward solutions has relented to more immediate anxieties, and overseas competition. That made the continued growth of San Francisco all the more crucial, as the need to build a base for resilient climate action is as great as ever. The climate crisis isn’t going anywhere, however, and our mission to put forth a space to bring together all aspects of climate action is as critical as ever.

With over 700 events on the schedule this year, it is all but impossible to capture all of the conversations, announcements, demonstrations and chocolate truffle workshops. Here are some of the big themes we saw in events and moments at San Francisco Climate Week 2026.

While the environmental movement has prospered in the Bay Area through technology and political organizing, at its core is a deep tradition of grassroots activism to protect the planet and the people who live to defend it.

That’s why, for the second year in a row, the Goldman Prize chose San Francisco Climate Week as the occasion to announce the winners of its prestigious award for environmental protectors from across the world. The Goldman Prize, often referred to as the “Green Nobel Prize”, selects activists who are on the frontlines of legal and economic battles to protect the world’s most vulnerable regions and people from extractive interests.

This year was the first in which all the winners were women, including Theonila Roka Matbob, who successfully took mining giant Rio Tinto to court in Australia for environmental damage wrought by their operations on Matbob’s home island of Bougainville, in Papua New Guinea.

In an interview with Climatebase, Matbob said that her experience at SF Climate Week had proven to be a new way to connect with young activists from around the world:

“I come from the other side of the world, so there has been a lot of learning. I really admire talking to young people. I have seen a lot of opportunities here, and learned that my tools for preparing young people to be the next band of leaders is very different, but the people I have met here have really inspired me. And I would like to encourage all young people who are already very passionate about this space to keep digging deep and building the resources to keep going.”

We were fortunate enough to interview several of this year’s Goldman winners at this year’s conference, so look out for more to come from them in upcoming editions of This Week in Climate!

San Francisco is, of course, the home of American technological innovation, and the lion’s share of technology events at Climate Week revolved around the climate implications of the buildout of AI. While the story of climate tech in recent months has centered more generally on a retreat to different priorities, this year’s SF Climate Week saw a series of important announcements from climate tech companies that Katie Brigham covered over at Heatmap:

What stood out this year was a clear turn toward execution, with climate tech companies moving beyond ambition to demonstrate how AI can directly accelerate energy and resource systems.

San Francisco Climate Week is also designed as an opportunity for the conversations and narratives that so often play out online to find a space to take place in person and in community. This year saw a new level of involvement from the climate media ecosystem who led events bringing together leaders with the climate community to hear from each other.

Climate justice and solutions outlet Grist led a session with climber and environmental advocate Alex Honnold along with Yurok author and activist Amy Bowers Cordalis and Grist Senior Staff Writer Naveena Sadasivam to explore the power of personal storytelling in shaping climate narratives. On the other side of town, climate tech and business journal Heatmap hosted their day-long Heatmap House conference with leaders and key stakeholders on pressing issues in climate and energy policy.

We caught up with Heatmap co-founder Robinson Meyer to get his take on climate media and the discourse playing out at San Francisco Climate Week:

“I was here last year, and this year I was like, dang— this is another pole in the year of climate events now. It’s New York Climate Week and San Francisco Climate Week. The other thing I like out about SF Climate Week is that you get a great sense of confronting the constraints on the ground, and what needs to happen to actually build out systems.

I went to so many events with decarbonization groups who said that ‘this is the time to build, this is the moment to go out there and build the infrastructure we need.’ And that’s a great thing to see.”

Beyond the big themes and conversations taking place at SF Climate Week were dozens of fascinating talks from leaders in politics, media and the Bay Area community. Here were a few of our favorites:

With San Francisco Climate Week 2026 in the rearview mirror, we look ahead to the inaugural edition of Boston Climate Week from May 3-10. This is the first in a slate of new climate weeks taking place under Climatebase’s Climate Week Network banner— reach out to us if you think your city should be next!