Our 16th Children’s Conference: You’re never too young for climate action

From Friday, 4 April to Sunday, 6 April, the 2025 Plant-for-the-Planet Annual Meeting of the Ambassadors for Climate Justice took place at the youth hostel in Bad Hersfeld. Nearly 40 children and teenagers aged 8 to 15 from all over Germany took part and, among other things…

• planted 300 trees
• wrote a letter of demands to Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier calling for a halt to deforestation by 2030,
• asked the Mayor of Bad Hersfeld questions about climate and environmental protection.

“It’s such a cool feeling to plant a tree yourself and bring a new living being into the world. The Children’s Conference gives me hope that together we can do something to fight the climate crisis,” says Antonios, 14, from Ilvesheim near Mannheim, who has been active with Plant-for-the-Planet since 2021.

“At the Children’s Conference, you see that you’re not alone and that together we can achieve a lot for the climate and plant many trees,” says Nieke, 11, from Hanover about her first Children’s Conference.

Learning about climate justice and forests in a playful way — and discovering how kids can get involved politically — was the focus of this year’s Children’s Conference.
A special highlight for the children was the online talk by Felix Finkbeiner about the rainforest and global deforestation. Felix, the founder of Plant-for-the-Planet, planted his first tree at the age of 9 and went on to launch the global children and youth initiative, which now has over 100,000 Ambassadors in 76 countries.
Equipped with new knowledge, the participants of the Children’s Conference wrote a letter to Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, calling for a stop to deforestation by 2030 — to ensure that Earth remains a livable place for future generations.

On Saturday afternoon, the children and teenagers planted 300 Douglas fir seedlings in Bad Hersfeld’s city forest near the SV Heenes sports field. Hannes Heyser, the district forest manager in Heenes, guided the planting activity in a child-friendly way and was pleased with the enthusiastic support in planting this climate-resilient conifer species.

Meanwhile, the participants took the opportunity to ask their many questions — ranging from climate protection in the city to ways children can get involved in politics — directly to Anke Hofmann, the Mayor of the district town of Bad Hersfeld.

Under the guidance of Frieda Binnig and Ines Heinbach, Social Media and Press Managers at Plant-for-the-Planet, the young participants learned playful tips and tricks for giving good interviews and telling their own climate stories.

In a banner-painting activity, they creatively expressed their messages about climate and environmental protection using brushes and paint.

As a final souvenir of the Children’s Conference, the children created a mini rainforest in a jar on Sunday, which they were allowed to take home.

“The Children’s Conference is meant to encourage the children and show them that anyone, regardless of their age, can make a positive change — whether it’s through a tree-planting activity in their own city, contributing their ideas to political processes, or having a direct exchange with the mayor,” summarized Jule Schnakenberg and Sarah Hadj Ammar the purpose of the Children’s Conference.

About Plant-for-the-Planet’s Children’s Conferences

The 16th Plant-for-the-Planet Children’s Conference took place in 2025. The proven concept gives children and teenagers the opportunity to exchange ideas and collaboratively develop new project ideas for a climate-just future. Empowering children and teenagers is, alongside forest restoration, the second key pillar of Plant-for-the-Planet.

Interested children and teenagers can join at any time and receive training as Ambassadors for Climate Justice at an academy. The next opportunity for this will be the academy in Berlin on May 10th.