Executive Director of United Nations Environment Programme-UNEP
In office June 2016 – November 2018
Preceded by
Achim Steiner
Succeeded by
Joyce Msuya
Minister of International Development
In office 17 October 2005 – 23 March 2012
Prime Minister
Jens Stoltenberg
Preceded by
Hilde Frafjord Johnson
Succeeded by
Heikki Holmås
Minister of the Environment
In office 18 October 2007 – 23 March 2012
Prime Minister
Jens Stoltenberg
Preceded by
Helen Bjørnøy
Succeeded by
Bård Vegard Solhjell
Member of Parliament
In office 1 October 1989 – 30 September 2001
Constituency
Oslo
Leader of the Socialist Left Party
In office 5 April 1987 – 3 May 1997
Preceded by
Theo Koritzinsky
Succeeded by
Kristin Halvorsen
Secretary of the Socialist Left Party
In office 1981–1985
Preceded by
Liss Schanche
Succeeded by
Hilde Vogt
Personal details
Born
(1955-01-18) 18 January 1955 (age 69) Oslo, Norway
Political party
Green Party
Other political affiliations
Socialist Left Party (until 2019)
Spouse
Gry Ulverud
Children
4
Residence(s)
Oslo, Norway
Alma mater
University of Oslo
Profession
Diplomat
Military service
Allegiance
Norway
Branch/service
Norwegian Air Force
Erik Solheim (born 18 January 1955) is a Norwegian diplomat and former politician. He served in the Norwegian government from 2005 to 2012 as Minister of International Development and Minister of the Environment, and as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme from 2016 to 2018.[1] Solheim is a member of the Green Party. Erik Solheim has 4 children from two marriages.
Solheim was formerly a politician for the Socialist Left Party (SV); he led its youth branch, the Socialist Youth, from 1977 to 1981, was party secretary from 1981 to 1985, and served as a member of the Parliament of Norway from 1989 to 2001. He was leader of the Socialist Left Party from 1987 to 1997. During Solheim's tenure as party leader the party moved closer to the centre and abandoned many former hard-left stances. Within the party, Solheim was considered part of the right wing, and his reforms made him strongly unpopular on the left wing of his own party.
In 2000 Solheim left Norwegian politics to take up an appointment as a special adviser in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs working as a participant in the Norwegian delegation that unsuccessfully attempted to resolve the Sri Lankan Civil War before the outbreak of Eelam War IV. Solheim returned to Norwegian politics in 2005 when he was appointed Minister of International Development. In 2007 he additionally became the Minister of the Environment, and he held both offices until 2012.
After leaving the government in 2012, he returned to his previous position as a special adviser in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and from 2013 to 2016 Solheim was chair of the OECD Development Assistance Committee in Paris. He was Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme from 2016 to 2018. In November 2018 he stepped down following an internal UN audit that criticized his frequent international travel and some internal rule breaking.[2]
Since he left the government, Solheim sometimes made critical remarks about the Socialist Left Party.[3] Solheim later expressed his support for the centrist Green Party and was active as a strategic adviser for the party during the 2015 elections.[3][4] He became a member of the Green Party in 2019.[5]
^"Erik Solheim får toppjobb i FN | ABC Nyheter". 2 May 2016. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
^Carrington, Damian (20 November 2018). "UN environment chief resigns after frequent flying revelations". the Guardian. Retrieved 2 December 2018.
^ ab"Solheim vil ikke svare på om han har forlatt SV".
^"Erik Solheim snakker ikke lenger med SV – Oslo".
^Erik Solheim: – Norge trenger et grønt folkeparti
ErikSolheim (born 18 January 1955) is a Norwegian diplomat and former politician. He served in the Norwegian government from 2005 to 2012 as Minister...
and ErikSolheim (2016–2018). UNEP's acting executive director, Joyce Msuya, took office in November 2018 following the resignation of ErikSolheim. Prior...
being allowed safe passage to travel to the talks. Norwegian mediator ErikSolheim told journalists that the LTTE should take direct responsibility for...
announced that the post of executive director of UNEP would be taken over by ErikSolheim in June 2016. Upon leaving UNEP, Steiner was appointed director of the...
to salvage an agreement between the parties, Norwegian special envoy ErikSolheim and LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingham arrived on the island. The parties...
punishment is totally unacceptable." Stoltenberg praised doctors Mads Gilbert and Erik Fosse for their humanitarian work in the Gaza Strip during the Gaza War,...
and that Norway's economy would benefit from membership. According to John Erik Fossum, a political science professor at ARENA, Centre for European Studies...
Pollution - The Dawoodi Bohras". YouTube. 20 December 2019. "Interview of ErikSolheim on beach cleanups in Mumbai". Hindustan times. 8 March 2017. "Live: Jon...
Socialist Left Party of Norway was held from April 3-7 in the city of Oslo. ErikSolheim was elected party leader, while Kjellbjørg Lunde and Per Eggum Mauseth...
the executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, ErikSolheim, discussed Rally for Rivers with Vasudev, and how environmental programs...
regained support, particularly under Theo Koritzinsky (1983–87) and ErikSolheim (1987–97). Support dropped in the 1997 parliamentary election but rose...
Deputy Øystein Djupedal Bård Vegar Solhjell Audun Lysbakken Preceded by ErikSolheim Succeeded by Audun Lysbakken Member of the Storting In office 1 October...
current climate change is mainly a natural phenomenon. Together with Jan-ErikSolheim and Kjel Stordahl, he published the article "Identifying natural contributions...
pollution was praised by the head of the United Nations Environment Program, ErikSolheim at a conference in Kenya in 2017. Emily Maitlis, the newscaster, asked...
objective to reduce poverty. In 2016, Petri Gornitzka took over from ErikSolheim as chair of the DAC. The country that nominates a Chair for the Committee...
Mauritania, who had served out his term. Following the resignation of ErikSolheim in November 2018, Msuya was appointed acting Executive Director of UNEP...
Ki-moon visited UNIS. Together with the Norwegian Minister of Environment ErikSolheim, Ban Ki-moon led a debate on the impact of a melting Arctic on the environment...
2019 Susanna Moorehead, UK 2016 Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, Sweden 2013 ErikSolheim, Norway 2010 J. Brian Atwood, USA 2008 Eckhard Deutscher, Germany 2003...
Katunayake on LTTE targets. All the while Norwegian initiatives led by ErikSolheim to negotiate a truce. The Sri Lankan and foreign intelligence agencies...
was held from May 3–5 at the Oslo People's House in the city of Oslo. ErikSolheim had held the party leader seat since 1987, was forced to resign after...
Global Information
Norway
Norwegian Air Force