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.