My Story

This is a picture from when I presented Oslo's new city platform in 2015. 

It was an historical event. The Greens were going into a powerful position for the first time in Norway. We were inexperienced and young, and we promised to make huge changes within a very short time frame.

I was only 28 and had spent most of my 20s as a climate activist. I was fed up with politicians who talked about climate change, but did nothing. Therefore, I had joined the Greens less than one year before the elections.

Suddenly, I was myself a politician, presenting an ambitious climate platform. I was excited, but as I sat there in front of the massive press conference, I was also dead scared that we would not be able to deliver. That also we, and I, as all the politicians I had criticized the past years, would fail in making any substantial change.

In 2015, The Greens had tripled in size in Oslo, and won the local elections. The Green Party became the third biggest party in Oslo. We were kingmakers, and after several weeks of negotiation, we went into the city government with the Labour party and the Socialist left party. 

On election night, I went from being a rather unknown climate activist, who never thought I would become a politician, to becoming the winner of the elections in Oslo, a national figure, and soon the vice mayor for Environment and Transport.

During the following years - I dare to claim that we changed the city more than anyone could imagine: 

• We made a plan to cut emissions by 95% by 2030.

• We implemented the world's first climate budget to operationalize our climate goals across city agencies on an annual basis. The Oslo climate budget has since been recognized world wide and is now copied by cities from Mumbai to New York.

• We built out Oslo's bicycle network faster than anyone could imagine, electrified the public transport system, and invested heavily in new infrastructure and increased frequency

• We also became the European Green Capital in 2019. 

• There was lot's of discussions about our city policies while we were in office, but when time came for re-election in 2019, the Green party did not collapse, but rather doubled in size: When people get green policies, they want more.

In 2021 I got elected to the Norwegian parliament, and now serve as parliamentary leader for the green party group.