Dr. Erik Solheim is the current President of the Green Belt and Road institute. He previously was the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme. Prior to that, he chaired the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a post he held since 2013, and served as UN Environment’s Special Envoy for environment, conflict and disaster.
From 2007 to 2012, he held the combined portfolio of Norway’s Minister of the Environment and International Development, and from 2005 to 2007 served as Minister of International Development. During his time as Minister, Norwegian aid reached 1%, the highest in the world. Dr. Solheim also put into place the Nature Diversity Act, considered to be Norway’s most important piece of environmental legislation in the last 100 years.
