Then my teacher drove me, I was a nine-year-old at the time, to other schools with my laptop. We won over lots of fellow campaigners that way. Both my sisters always helped, and so did my parents. Q: In your speeches, you usually talk mostly about climate equality. Why is this so important, and how is it related to your goal of planting trees? A: We kids aren't planting trees because we want to become forest rangers or environmentalists, but because we believe that we can't leave the future up to adults alone. The more trees we plant, the more the adults will listen to us. Then we can also discuss other ideas with adults. Fairness is very important to us kids. Is it fair that the U.S. and we Europeans emit 60 % of the CO2, and 6 billion humans split the remaining 40%? No...if we in the wealthy North want to emit more, then we have to buy the rights of the others, and pay for them. Every tree that students plant in the coming years is a symbol for climate equality.

Q: It's so impressive how much work you've done spreading your important message at such a young age. Do you think that being a kid makes it more difficult to get adults to listen to you?  A: Our parents often read "The Emperor's New Clothes" to us. In that story, all the adults did the wrong thing, even though they knew exactly that it was wrong. Only when a child shouted, "He doesn't have any clothes on!", did the adults shout along with the child, "He doesn't have any clothes on!" Besides, it's about the future - and children are the future. Whatever adults do or don't do, we kids will have to pay the price. When 700 kids from 105 countries elected me last year to UNEP's Children's Board, they did it because they all believe that we can change something together. Many thousands of children in the world are doing amazing things, and we're all working together. Q: Speaking for Plant-for-the-Planet must take up a lot of your time! Is it hard to balance schoolwork and your work for the organization, and still have time to do fun things? A: Yeah, I've given at least 100 speeches all over the world since my first presentation in fourth grade. I've learned to talk in front of lots of people, sometimes thousands of people, on TV or on the radio.

I often do my homework on the train. My teachers and my classmates help me when I miss school. Some weeks, I have a lot going on: three, four speeches, but then there are weeks where I only play. I have enough free time. Some kids learn to play a musical instrument in their free time or play on a sports team. That also takes up a lot of time. We kids are trying to save the world and our future! Q: What are some of your favorite things to do when you do have free time? A: My hobbies are mountain biking, swimming, snowboarding, skiing and soccer. My favorite subject is pottery. I don't get to play piano enough.

Q: What are your goals at Plant-the-Planet for the coming year? What about your personal dreams? A: We want to have planted our millionth tree in Germany by early December at the latest. Next year we'll move on to the second million in Germany. Kids from 20 countries have heard of it and also promised to plant a million trees in their country. Our goal is that next year, kids from 75 countries also promise to each plant a million trees. If children from all over the world work together, we can get kids from every country in the world to plant one, two, or three million more trees. When we've achieved that, my dream is that adults listen to us and finally do what they've known for a long time that they have to do. Q: Well we can't wait to see what great things you and the other kids at Plant-for-the-Planet accomplish in the future. Thanks so much for sharing some of your time with us, Felix, and keep up the amazing work!

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