United Nations Chief of the Environment Erik Solheim resigns

OIOS report on the environment of the United Nations

Erik Solheim, a former minister of the Norwegian government and leader of the Socialist Left Party (SV), admitted to making mistakes in the way he tried to preserve the climate while traveling in business class. Newspaper Aftenposten said Tuesday afternoon that the head of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) had now chosen to resign after spending about half a million US dollars on travel in its first 22 months working.

Erik Solheim has also been accused of being dictatorial and abusing The United Nations resources, which forced him to repay some of the money.

Guterres expressed gratitude for the services rendered by Solheim and acknowledged that he had played a leading role in bringing the world's attention to critical environmental challenges.

Solheim's deputy, Joyce Msuya of Tanzania, will be appointed acting chief of UNEP while the Secretary-General will try to find a successor in Solheim, said the spokesman.

In a report, The New York Times The audit of official travel undertaken by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services revealed "an uneconomical route of flight routes, opting for more expensive airlines, the implementation of modalities of telecommuting not in accordance with the policy in force ".

The Guardian also revealed that Solheim had to recuse himself in September from professional relations with his own wife and a Norwegian company that hired him shortly after signing an agreement with Unep in April. Some countries reportedly withheld funds from the body because they were unhappy with his behavior and risked undermining his finances.

According to published reports, Solheim has been criticized for his numerous travels and management style that has led some Scandinavian countries and others to suspend their contributions to UNEP funded by donors until criticism is answered.

Solheim's $ 500,000 sponsorship of the Volvo Ocean Race was another source of concern for the staff, although this was not mentioned on the VOR sponsors' webpage or announced by Unep. .

The United Nations chief of the environment Erik Solheim resigned as a result of widespread criticism of excessive spending on official international travel. "Doing things differently is never easy and I will leave knowing that I have never spared my efforts to implement this vision and to leave the Environment more capable and more impactful".

When the OIOS auditors asked them to report on the 76 days spent in Oslo (Norway) and Paris (France), Erik Solheim email: "We can not accept this question on holiday or at work … we do not live in the industrial era anymore and they have to stop treating me like I'm working in a factory from 07 to 16 years old .. "The reverse is" they have to stop asking this stupid question. "The resignation will take effect on November 22. He emailed the staff on Monday:" We started to talk about it. agreement on a set of principles [to] to guide the way we work and interact with each other ".