My Global Advocacy

‘We cannot frighten people into caring about wildlife conservation. This was our message at the London Conference on Illegal Trade in Wildlife, last week. All too often conservation is carried out at the expense of poor people. All too often we are…

In a series of meetings in Paris, I met with counterparts in government and non-government sector, to discuss the forthcoming Conference of the Parties on Climate Change, the 2019 Secretary-General Climate Summit, the Global Pact…

I was honoured to meet Pope Francis at the Vatican to secure his support for several key UN Environment initiatives. Along with legendary hockey player and UN Environment Patron of the Polar region, Slava Fetisov, we updated Pope Francis on the ‘…

France is a key partner to UN Environment and our second largest contributor to the Environment Fund. I had the privilege of meeting Emmanuel Macron, President of France and  Laurent Fabius, President of the French Constitutional Council and a…

In Oslo I met with Crown Prince Haakon and the Crown Princess of Norway Mette-Marit to explore potential cooperation with UN Environment on key areas of interest including oceans. We are now in the process of developing some suggestions and I…

I’ve often said that there is no crisis we cannot innovate our way out of, and the environmental challenges we face are no exception. From tacking climate change to protecting biodiversity, and reducing pollution, the solution starts with innovation…

Over the last few years, the state of our oceans has been a cause of growing concern to Norway. The recent establishment of a multi-donor trust fund to address marine litter and the Norwegian contribution to the new Initiative on Ocean Business…

The Oslo Tropical Forest Forum, one of the largest conferences globally focused on the issue, kicked off with news that tropical forests lost 39 million acres last year, an area roughly the size of Bangladesh. Protecting and restoring forests is…

I visited Brussels for meetings with the European Union, namely at the EU-UN Environment High Level Meeting on a range of issues including climate change and security and environmental governance. At a high-level event on climate, security and peace…

My mission to Europe began with the opening of the European Union Green week in Utrecht. Like many cities growing rapidly, people are concerned about keeping cities healthy and making sure they are enjoyable places to stay, live and work in for…