Erik Solheim resigns from UN over financial outcry

( November 21, 2018, Oslo, Sri Lanka Guardian) UN environment chief Erik Solheim resigned on Tuesday after a UN audit questioning his huge travel expenses triggered an outcry, UN officials said.

The former environment minister of Norway had been at the helm of Nairobi-based UN Environment since June 2016.

Erik Solheim was actively involved with Sri Lanka during the civil war. From the spring of 2000 he was granted a leave of absence from parliament to serve as special advisor to the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sri Lanka. He went on to become one of the most recognizable figures in the peace negotiations between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers.

Solheim helped negotiate a truce in 2002. On 17 October 2005, he continued his engagement with international affairs when he was appointed Minister of International Development in the cabinet of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.