Sirpa Pietikäinen MEP

GLOBE EU President

Steen Gade MP

GLOBE Europe President

Rt Hon Lord Deben

GLOBE International President

What is GLOBE?

GLOBE is a community of 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 environmental agenda of climate and biodiversity protection and sustainable development. GLOBE fora 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.

How can European parliamentarians engage in GLOBE fora?

European parliamentarians can engage in GLOBE fora at different levels: as Members of the National GLOBE Chapter active in their legislature, if there is one, or as individual Members of GLOBE Europe, the regional European chapter of GLOBE. A separate GLOBE chapter, GLOBE EU, is active at the European Parliament. European legislators are also welcome to participate in GLOBE fora gathering legislators from all over the world, facilitated by GLOBE International.

Click here to see what is coming up in our agenda in the European region and beyond.

GLOBE International, GLOBE Europe and GLOBE EU are separate legal entities, supported by a Secretariat in London (in charge of facilitating the international programme) and a Secretary in Brussels.

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. (...)"

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. 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 the Rt Hon. John Gummer, Lord Deben.