Sirpa Pietikäinen MEP

GLOBE EU President

   Steen Gade MP

GLOBE Europe President

Chairman of the Danish Parliament Environment Committe

"GLOBE is a unique environmental forum in which parliamentarians from industrialised countries and the emerging economies get together with business leaders and scientists to develop proposals on how the world can cooperate beyond 2012"

German Chancellor Angela Merkel

"With initiatives like The Road to Copenhagen, the GLOBE community in Europe has made a difference by helping bridge the gap between policymakers and the civil society to find solutions for the climate change challenge"

Margot Wallström

Former EU Environment Commissioner (1999-2004), Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of Institutional Relation and Communication (2004-2009)

"The forum of the GLOBE community of parliamentarians in Europe is a precious partner of UNEP for raising awareness, and mainstreaming environmental issues into policy making. This forum combines the rigour of experienced policy makers and the enthusiasm of political actors, both much needed to promote an ambitious environmental agenda in Europe and at the global level"

Christophe Bouvier

Director of the UNEP Regional Office for Europe

GLOBE is a members-led, members-only community of activist parliamentarians present in the legislatures of most countries of Europe and other regions of the world.

The Members of GLOBE share an interest in co-operating across country and party lines on the wider environmental agenda of climate and biodiversity protection and sustainable development. GLOBE forums at national, regional and international level, provide an independent high-level platform where parliamentarians who are committed to building cross-party and transnational consensus on ambitious policies to enhance environmental protection and sustainable development can talk and work together, in dialogue with key policy stakeholders, from the UN, EU and national administrations to civil society and the business community.

The GLOBE European Charter

The GLOBE European Charter was itself adopted at the Århus Conference for Parliamentarians, in the framework of the Fourth UNECE Ministerial Conference which adopted the  Århus Convention in June 1998. The Charter put in writing the vision of the GLOBE community in the European region:

"(...) Membership in GLOBE will be open to all members of parliament from Europe providing that they are personally committed to protecting the environment and promoting sustainable development, that they are democratically elected and themselves committed to democracy.

GLOBE's vocation is to help members co-operate to: consult, inform and help each other; compare existing legislation and initiate joint legislation; support actions and initiatives by the public which aim to protect and improve the European environment.

As GLOBE members we undertake to speak in our own name and with the environment in mind; we undertake to speak neither on behalf of our country nor of our political group; we undertake to seek to reconcile opposing views, always bearing in mind the best interest of the environment. (...)"

How is GLOBE present in Europe?

GLOBE is active in the European region mainly via two organisations: GLOBE EU and GLOBE Europe. Together, they constitute a single forum of European legislators where MEPs and MPs can exchange ideas and information, define political strategies and agree on co-ordinated action on a regular basis. Click here to see what is coming up in their agenda.

Although formally GLOBE Europe and GLOBE EU are two separate and financially independent entities, they have shared a common support structure since April 2008, which facilitates cooperation in order to enhance the effectiveness of the two GLOBE organisations and interlocked agendas. The GLOBE Joint Secretariat in Europe functions as the binding, co-ordinating body of the GLOBE community of legislators in the European region, and remains politically neutral at all times in this facilitating role.

Some Members of GLOBE EU and GLOBE Europe are also Members of yet another GLOBE formation, GLOBE International, focused on interparliamentary dialogue within the G 8+5 group, and whose separate Secretariat is based in London.

A Bit of History

The first formation of the GLOBE community was created in 1989, when Hemmo Muntingh, Member of the European Parliament, USA Congressman Al Gore and Takashi Kosugi, Member of the Japanese Diet, launched a dialogue platform between environmentally aware parliamentarians of the world's biggest economic blocs, which was formally registered as a non-profit organisation under Belgian law in 1990. This organisation was named GLOBE International. The cross-party group of GLOBE legislators active at the European Parliament was formally registered as an independent non-profit organisation under the name GLOBE European Community in 1992. Finally, GLOBE Europe started as an informal offspring of GLOBE EU in 1994 and was registered as an organisation it its own right in 2001. At the time the  European Commission was the main sponsor of the Secretariat capacity of the GLOBE organisations based in Europe. Currently they are funded 100% by private donors.

Outside Europe, a GLOBE community has been active at the Japanese Diet since 1990. You can visit GLOBE Japan's website in English via Google Translate or in Japanese.

In 2004 GLOBE UK took over the rotating Presidency of GLOBE International and secured the support of the UK Government and other private donors to strengthen its own Secretariat and relocate it to London. Since then the UK has commendably chaired the extra-European GLOBE dialogues, and decided to focus on inter-parliamentary cooperation between G-8 countries. In 2008 this scope was enlarged to G-8+5 countries. Its current Chair is Stephen Byers MP.