Espen Barth Eide (born 1 May 1964) is a Norwegian politician and political scientist. He is currently serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Jonas Gahr Støre's government, having previously done so under Jens Stoltenberg. He was a member of the Norwegian Parliament for Oslo from 2017 to 2025, representing the Labour Party. He was elected to this seat in the 2017 election, and reelected in the 2021 election. From 2017 to 2021, Eide was the Labour Party's spokesperson for Energy, Climate and Environment. He also served as Minister of Climate and the Environment between 2021 and 2023.
On 22 August 2014, Barth Eide was appointed United Nations special adviser on Cyprus by former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon. He continued in this capacity under current secretary-general António Guterres until 14 August 2017, when he stepped down from his UN role in order to engage in the election campaign in Norway.
From 2014 to 2016 he served as managing director and member of the managing board at the World Economic Forum in Geneva.
Barth Eide served as Norway's Minister of Defence in Stoltenberg's Second Cabinet from 2011 to 2012, and subsequently as Minister of Foreign Affairs until 2013. Since December 2013, Barth Eide has served as a member of the board of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD). He was chair of the Board until 14 October 2021. He was a member of the boards of Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) and the Norwegian Atlantic Committee until the same date.
Early life and education Eide is the son of the jurist, human rights academic, and author Asbjørn Eide (b. 1933) and Professor of nutritional physiology Wenche Barth Eide (b. Barth 1935). He attended the Oslo Cathedral School and graduated from the University of Oslo in 1993 with a cand.polit. degree. He also attended the Autonomous University of Barcelona as an exchange student.
Eide joined the Labour Party in 1979 and in the 1980s held positions in AUF (Labour Party Youth). He was secretary-general of the European Movement Norway in 1992-1993 and had a role in the campaign for Norwegian membership in the EU in 1994.
Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) In 1993, Eide began working as a researcher in the United Nations Program at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI). He became Head of this program in 1996, later working as an advisor to the panel on Threats, Challenges and Change and the Report on Integrated Missions. In 2002 he became the head of NUPI's Department of International Politics, a position he held until he returned to Government in 2005.
Political career During Jens Stoltenberg's first term as Prime Minister, from 2000 to 2001, Eide served as a State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. When the Stoltenberg's second cabinet took office after the 2005 election, Eide became a State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2010, he again served as a State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. On 11 November 2011, he was appointed to the post of Minister of Defence. On 21 September 2012, he was appointed to the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs, succeeding Jonas Gahr Støre.
From 2001 to 2013, Eide was a member of the Presidency of the Party of European Socialists. In 2004, he led a policy review on integrated missions commissioned by the UN Secretariat. He also served as adviser to the High-Level Panel on UN Reform, which concluded its work in 2005. He has also been active in the World Economic Forum since 2003, and a regular attendee of the Munich Security Conference since 2006.
Parliament After the resignation of Jens Stoltenberg's Government in October 2013, following the 2013 election, he temporarily left Norwegian politics, but returned to Norway and was elected as Member of Parliament for the Oslo Labour Party in the 2017 election. He was re-elected in 2021. In Parliament, he sat in the Standing Committee on Energy and the Environment and also served as its first vice chair between 2017 and 2021. Concurrently he was also the party's spokesperson on energy, climate and environmental issues. While serving in government from 2021, his seat was covered by deputy representative Siri Staalesen. He announced in August 2024 that he wouldn't seek re-election at the 2025 election.
Minister of Defence Eide was appointed as defence minister by Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg on 11 November 2011 after Grete Faremo was appointed minister of justice. Eide described his new position as "a great responsibility" and said he would not make "revolutionary changes".
In March 2012, Eide criticized NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussens for saying that he was open to the possibility of using information gained under torture. Eide said that in his view this was "unacceptable", saying that it violated international conventions.
In June 2012, Eide made the opening remarks at a seminar in Oslo on "Masculinity and the Military", saying that Norway was beginning the "final stage of the transformation of the armed forces", taking "a fundamentally new approach to how we recruit, invest in and maintain a pool of highly qualified personnel." In addition to "recruiting those who can run long distances and carry a heavy back pack", he explained, the military would seek to "attract those who are especially skilled in new technologies. Young people who can make an impact on system and strategy thinking. Indeed we need women and men who are inclined to find cyberspace more fascinating than wildlife and hiking."
Minister of Foreign Affairs (first term) Prime Minister Stoltenberg named Eide minister of foreign affairs on 21 September 2012 in a cabinet reshuffle.
2012
In December 2012, Eide urged the United Kingdom to remain in the EU.
2013 At an Arctic Frontiers conference in Tromsø in January 2013, Eide signed a Host Country Agreement between Norway and the Arctic Council, establishing a permanent secretariat for the council in that city.
At a joint press conference on 12 March 2013 in Washington, D.C., with newly appointed U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Eide said that Norway was working "closely with the Syrian opposition", by providing humanitarian aid and, "trying to help them to set up local council inside Syria." But Norway, like the U.S., was not yet, "actively arming the rebels", though it agreed with the U.S. that "President Assad has lost all credibility, he must go. We need to work with the Syrian opposition, we need to help them to unify, we need to help them to consolidate messages, and we need to make sure that the Security Council finally is able to come to a kind of joint position in this issue. And I think on these issues we are very much of the same approach."
In March 2013, Eide addressed the first-ever governmental conference on the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons. "Time is not on our side", he told the audience. "The technology exists, on more hands, and we know that more states and non-state groups are contemplating acquiring real weapons. On top of this, comes the risk of accidental detonation, for instance due to improper handling of nuclear weapons."
In April 2013, Eide declared that a new wave of violence in the state of Rakhine in Myanmar should not be considered identical to earlier conflicts in that country, which resulted from government oppression. He expressed confidence that Burmese authorities were taking the situation seriously and were eager to establish reconciliation and peace.
Eide hailed the "historic agreement" between Serbia and Kosovo in April 2013 which resolved all outstanding questions between the two countries. Meeting with Serbian First Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić in Belgrade, Eide said that even though Norway is not a member of the EU, it strongly supports Serbia's EU pathway.
Minister of Climate and the Environment On 14 October 2021, Eide was appointed Minister of Climate and the Environment in Støre's Cabinet.
2021 Barth Eide and Minister of Trade and Industry Jan Christian Vestre announced that the government would work actively to cut emissions, with him saying: "We must dispose of the emissions we have left in the best possible way. We will look for the most rational, cost-effective and efficient measures that reduce emissions in all sectors of society".
Barth Eide expressed that an overview over climate emissions from consumption could be necessary. He further said it was something Norway should become better at, but couldn't yet say when such a process would be started. However, he did reassure that it would be started gradually over time.
Early into the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Barth Eide said it was also too early to say if any significant progress could be made. He did however stress the importance of the work against climate change and putting 1,5 degrees as a target for the world to reach. He also advised that money that goes to climate adaption should be tripled.
Barth Eide stated that Greta Thunberg's statements of the seriousness of the climate crisis were acceptable, but he further warned that saying that the policies and the conference being useless, would be heading down a dangerous path. He further added a message to Thunberg and her supporters: "I believe that the strong and sensible commitment to make something happen must be converted into political action, not into rejecting the whole idea of democratic political change. It's a bit important to get that balance in order there, and that is my message to Greta Thunberg and those who cheer her on".
In late November, Eide approved the culling of 26 wolves living in various parts of Norway. On the issue, he commented: "The Ministry of Climate and the Environment has dealt with complaints about the predatory game committees' decisions on licensing of up to 26 wolves outside the wolf zone. We have not found grounds to change the decision. They are therefore final". The wolves are a critical endangered species in Norway.
2022 Barth Eide received criticism from the Socialist Left Party in January 2022 after having spoken "warmly" about the country's oil and gas industry in a meeting with the European Union's Commissioner for Climate Action Frans Timmermans. The party's spokesperson for climate policy, Lars Haltbrekken, stated that his party "fears that fossil gas will displace renewable and emission-free energy". He also indicated that the party would question Barth Eide about the matter, and to "get him to realise that fossil energy is not the solution, not even in a temporary period". Barth Eide responded to the criticism, saying: "In an ideal world, one should really say that only completely green things are green. But part of the problem with taxonomy is that everything has to be green at once. Then you will not catch the transition from brown to green, which the gas can be if it replaces coal, but which it is not if it replaces wind. As long as you aim for zero emissions in the end, then this is a natural part of the way there".
Barth Eide and his predecessor, Sveinung Rotevatn, both agreed that Norwegian politicians hasn't done enough to fight against climate change. Either he or Rotevatn expressed that the 1.5°C target wasn't impossible to reach, although it could be difficult.
In response to a joint letter from governors and mayors from the area surrounding the Oslo fjord regarding nitrogen pollution, Barth Eide responded saying that he appreciated the enthusiasm regarding the issue. He also promised to meet the effected local leaders regarding measures to strengthen nitrogen purification and solutions to other issues mentioned in the letter.
In early February, Eide announced that the government had won in the appeal court against a temporary injunction to further cull 26 wolves inside the designated wolf zone. The culling of the wolves started the very next day, bringing the Norwegian wolf even closer to extinction.