Sveinung Rotevatn | |
Office: | First Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party |
Term Start: | 26 September 2020 |
Leader: | Guri Melby |
Predecessor: | Ola Elvestuen |
Office2: | Minister of Climate and the Environment |
Term Start2: | 24 January 2020 |
Term End2: | 14 October 2021 |
Primeminister2: | Erna Solberg |
Predecessor2: | Ola Elvestuen |
Successor2: | Espen Barth Eide |
Office3: | State Secretary for the Ministry of Climate and the Environment |
Term Start3: | 12 October 2018 |
Term End3: | 24 January 2020 |
Primeminister3: | Erna Solberg |
Minister3: | Ola Elvestuen |
Office4: | State Secretary for the Ministry of Justice and Public Security |
Term Start4: | 17 January 2018 |
Term End4: | 12 October 2018 |
Primeminister4: | Erna Solberg |
Minister4: | Sylvi Listhaug Tor Mikkel Wara |
Office5: | Member of the Storting |
Term Start5: | 1 October 2021 |
Constituency5: | Hordaland |
Term Start6: | 1 October 2013 |
Term End6: | 2 October 2017 |
Office7: | Leader of the Young Liberals |
Term Start7: | 16 October 2010 |
Term End7: | 26 October 2013 |
Predecessor7: | Anne Solsvik |
Successor7: | Tord Hustveit |
Birth Date: | 15 May 1987 |
Birth Place: | Nordfjordeid, Sogn og Fjordane, Norway |
Sveinung Rotevatn (born 15 May 1987) is a Norwegian politician for the Liberal Party. Rotevatn comes from Nordfjordeid, Sogn og Fjordane, and has a master's degree in law from the University of Bergen.[1] He served as Minister of Climate and the Environment from 2020 to 2021.[2] Prior to that, he served as a state secretary at the same department from 2018 to 2020 under then minister Ola Elvestuen.
Rotevatn became the leader of the Young Liberals of Norway, the Liberal Party's youth wing, in 2010 and was succeeded in October 2013 by Tord Hustveit.[3] [4]
In 2013, called him the biggest political talent in Norway.[5]
Rotevatn was elected an MP from the Sogn og Fjordane county constituency in the 2013 Norwegian parliamentary election.[6] He failed to win re-election in the 2017 election, but was later appointed State Secretary to the Department of Justice and Public Security when the Liberal Party went into coalition government with the Conservative Party and the Progress Party on 17 January 2018.
He was re-elected to the Storting in the 2021 election, this time from Hordaland.
In January 2022, both he and his successor as environment minister, Espen Barth Eide, agreed that Norwegian politicians had not done enough to fight climate change. Rotevatn stated: "I take responsibility for every ton of CO2 we emitted and did not emit when I was Minister of Climate. I'm glad the emissions went down when the Liberal Party ruled, but it has not gone down fast enough".[7]
On 24 January 2020, following the Progress Party's withdrawal from government, he was appointed Minister of the Environment.
In May 2020, he announced his intention to run for the party leadership in September to succeed outgoing leader Trine Skei Grande. At the time, he became the first person to announce his run for leader following Grande's decision to resign.[8]
On 23 August, he was designated deputy leader of the party, with Abid Raja as second deputy and Melby as party leader, unanimously by the party's election committee.[9]
At the party conference in September, he was elected first deputy leader, with Melby as leader and Raja as second deputy, unopposed.[10]