GLOBE International is honoured to have been designated as the first-ever UNFCCC Focal Point for the Informal Parliamentary Group, to facilitate the engagement of parliamentary networks and parliamentarians at UNFCCC meetings, including the annual Conference of Parties (COPs). GLOBE has served in this capacity since COP26 in Glasgow, UK, in 2021, and proactively brought together the world’s leading parliamentary organisations and networks for the first time on a non-partisan, cross-party basis, to act collectively on climate change and sustainable development issues. 

At UNFCCC COPs, since COP26, GLOBE has also initiated a number of special service offers for the global parliamentary constituency to support more effective engagement with UN processes. In particular, to improve parliamentary understanding of, and engagement with, the three Rio Conventions (climate change, biodiversity and desertification), as well as the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Sendai Framework on Disaster Risk Reduction.

GLOBE has initiated a package of free services for the global parliamentary constituency to become a better organised and more impactful constituency in national parliaments, regional and international processes. This package of services range from monthly information webinars, regular newsletters, the annual COP Parliamentary Calendar, to the highly popular Parliamentary Pavilion, which was first hosted by GLOBE at COP28, and is being organised once again by GLOBE at COP29.

Membership of the Parliamentary Group is cross-party and currently includes over 20 parliamentary networks and organisations (see image).

Membership is open to parliamentarians, parliamentary networks or organisations seeking to advance the aims of the UNFCCC and implementation of the Paris Agreement. We also work closely with ICLEI, Focal Point for UNFCCC Local Governments and Major Authorities (LGMA) Constituency, which includes sub-national and regional legislators amongst their membership.

If you would like to join the Parliamentary Group, or for further information, please contact us at <focalpoint@globelegislators.org>

BACKGROUND

Parliamentarians are still not a formal constituency recognised by the United Nations, unlike the nine Major Groups established following the UN Earth Summit in 1992. GLOBE International was founded in 1991 by prominent legislators – including Al Gore and John Kerry (USA), Akiko Domoto (Japan), Nikolai Nikolaievich Vorontsov (Russia) and Francois Roelants du Vivier (Belgium) – to address precisely this shortcoming within the UN member state-based multilateral system and bring the voice of elected representatives committed to climate action to the fore.

Since the Paris Agreement of 2015, however, parliamentarians have been recognised as an informal grouping and this paves the way to their greater recognition as key actors central to the delivery of the Paris Agreement and related international commitments. GLOBE International has taken the initiative to support this Parliamentary Group and provide administrative, information and coordination support to engage cross-party legislators at UNFCCC meetings and COPs. The founding members of the Parliamentary Group comprise Climate Parliament, Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, InterPares/ International IDEA, ParlAmericas and Westminster Foundation for Democracy.

GLOBE Legislators serves as the first ever Focal Point for the UNFCCC Informal Parliamentary Group, working strictly on a non-partisan, cross-party basis in accordance with GLOBE’s ethos.

As the oldest parliamentary network active on climate change since the beginning of the UNFCCC in 1995, GLOBE has provided an annual service to parliamentarians active on climate change through its annual COP Legislators Summits. In 2021, ahead of COP26, GLOBE took this service role one step further by initiating the first ever Focal Point role at the UNFCCC, with the support of the UNFCCC Secretariat and endorsement by six other founding members. 

Since then GLOBE has provided information, coordination, networking and capacity building services to a growing array of parliamentary organisation and networks across party lines to accelerate climate action.

In 2023 at COP28, GLOBE introduced another game changer for parliamentary engagement at the UNFCCC, by initiating the first ever Parliamentary Pavilion as a physical, on site hub for parliamentarians, offering a packed programme of live-streamed events across the two weeks of COP. The Pavilion events are available to view and download as the COP28 and COP29 Parliamentary Pavilion playlists respectively on GLOBE’s YouTube channel.

Members of the Parliamentary Group 

Founding members:

• GLOBE Legislators – Focal Point 
• Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI)
• ParlAmericas
• Westminster Foundation for Democracy
• InterPares Parliaments/International IDEA
• Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA)
• Climate Parliament

Others: 

• African Food Systems Parliamentary Network (AFSPaN)
• African Parliamentary Network on Climate Change
• African Parliamentary Network on Internet Governance (APNIG)
• AGORA Parliamentary Resource Centre
• AirQuality Asia 
• Clima de Eleição, Brazil
• Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) Parliamentary Group
• Coalition for Conservation, Australia
• Elected Officials to  Protect America (EOPA) 
• Environmental Leadership Australia (ELA)
• GPPEDD (Groupe Parlementaire Pour La Protection de L’Environnement et le Developpement Durable)
• OPCC Parliamentary Observatory on Climate Change and Just Transition
• Parliamentarians for a Fossil Fuel Free Future
• Peers for the Planet 
• Plataforma CIPO
• Polea
• Rainey Centre (USA)
• Scottish Parliament 
• Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum (SADC PF)
• Ubuntu for Climate Finance Initiative