Environmental champion, politician, climate and peace negotiator
Currently the Global Head, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Erik Solheim is one of the world’s most visionary politicians, having served for 12 years as a Member of Parliament in Norway. He also served as Minister of International Development between 2005 and 2007 and held the combined portfolio of Norway’s Minister of the Environment and International Development between 2007 and 2012. In January 2013, he took charge of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC), a position to which he was unanimously elected. A special UN envoy for environment, conflict and disasters, he has received recognitions too numerous to list, including UNEP’s ‘Champion of the Earth’ award. He met Bittu Sahgal in Mumbai earlier this year when the Sanctuary Nature Foundation and UNEP jointly organised a discussion on economics, biodiversity and climate change, and shared his vision, work and determination to leave our children a better world with the million-strong Sanctuary network.
ERik, we know a fair deal about your work life, but what was your childhood like? Where did you grow up and how did nature so totally infuse your life with purpose? I had a very normal, sheltered childhood in Oslo, where I grew up playing soccer and doing all the other things that European children do. But even way back then, around the age of 15, I began to develop an interest in politics. I think it started with a massive exhibition on poverty that was held in Oslo that opened my eyes to the state of the human condition beyond my own protected life. Nature? That is part of every Norwegian child’s life. There is almost nowhere you can go in Norway that does not infuse you with awe and respect for wild nature. Between the wildlife of the sea and the mountains, to which our family would inevitably escape during the holidays, my life choices were virtually predestined.
この記事は Sanctuary Asia の August 2017 版に掲載されています。
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この記事は Sanctuary Asia の August 2017 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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Why Children Are Needed To Help Save The World
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Who's Who?
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Everyday habits matter! Let’s be kind to the planet, animals and ourselves!
World Scan
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