Did you know: Evidence shows that democracies produce more ambitious climate policies? So, support for democratic governance helps achieve our climate goals. What is more, the disruptions to people’s lives from environmental and climate crises threatens the stability of democracies worldwide. 

WFD works in some of the places most affected by climate change, where there is an urgent need to adapt to its impact, and in some of the world’s biggest economies, helping drive ambitious, inclusive environmental action.

In 2024-2025, WFD partnered with parliaments and civil society to implement environmental democracy programmes in Africa, Asia and Central Asia. 

This year, we deepened our commitment to environmental democracy through programmes in Nigeria, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Uganda, The Gambia, Georgia, Indonesia, and across ASEAN. Our activities included:

• Conducting political economy analysis
• Enhancing citizen engagement
• Supporting parliamentary dialogue on and scrutiny of climate legislation
• Developing tools to monitor climate finance and assess environmental governance

These efforts aimed to strengthen transparency, public participation, and institutional accountability in climate policy, supporting inclusive and resilient democratic responses to the climate crisis. 

Here are 8 highlights of our impact in the past year: 

1. In The Gambia, WFD supported a review of policy and legislative gaps on climate change which is leading to the development of a Climate Act
2. In Kenya we developed a report and climate financing monitoring tool focused on the flow of funds from national to local level
3. In Sierra Leone we used innovative drama and story-telling techniques to capture and relay citizens’ concerns on climate change to their MPs and Parliament
4. In Uganda we organised a special “Environment Parliament” to review action and promote a Citizens’ Charter
5. In Nigeria we presented a political economy analysis to the National Council on Climate Change
6. In Morocco, delivered professional development to parliamentary staff in post-legislative scrutiny of climate/environmental legislation and developed a map of civil society organisations working on environmental and climate issues with whom MPs can connect to inform their legislative and oversight work.
7. In Indonesia, WFD partnered with the Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation Agency to promote environmental democracy, enabling our continued support to Indonesia’s parliament as it takes more ambitious climate action. Our programme in Indonesia so far has led to the inclusion of a climate change bill in the priority national legislative agenda for the first time.
8. WFD established the ASEAN Environmental Democracy Framework Observatory to promotes transparency and citizen oversight in environmental governance.
9. In Georgia, WFD supported the development of climate legislation through a participatory process that actively engaged a broad spectrum of stakeholders - from citizens to academia