Bonn, February 22 - The Mayor of Bonn and the UN awarded a group of young pupils a prize for best childrens's global climate change song today for a performance that helped build awareness and commitment among young people in the run up to the Paris Climate Change Conference. Their catchy winning song was "Climate Astronauts"!

The children from Gottfried Kinkel Primary School in Bonn, Germany, took home the award for best children’s song in the 2015 Global Youth Music Contest, which was organized by the International Association for the Advancement of Innovative Approaches to Global Challenges, in cooperation with UNESCO and the United Nations Climate Change secretariat.

“The creativity of these talented children from Bonn is a testament to just how seriously youth from all corners of the Earth today take climate change—underlining how music and art has a powerful role to play in forging a better world,” said Nick Nuttall, UNFCCC Spokesperson.

“The competition triggered entries from around the globe with the two youth winners from Indonesia and the United States honoured in Paris. Today, we honour the children and students of Gottfried Kinkel for helping to pen a song that was both super catchy and full of enthusiastic advice on how each one of us can live more environmentally-friendly lives,” he said.

New Mayor of Bonn Praises the Young Climate Ambassadors 

Today’s award ceremony took place at Gottfried Kinkel School with special guest Ashok Sridharan, Mayor of Bonn. Mayor Sridharan thanked the school, the children and their teachers: “Children’s voices need to be heard because they are the generation that will be impacted by the effects of climate change.”

“As chairman of the board of the Foundation Bonn Climate Ambassadors, I admire the huge motivation of children to change the world and to take action. These young Bonn Climate Ambassadors help people understand the importance of our global challenge with the power of music. Their testimonial and passion makes me feel hopeful that they will help create a more sustainable future,” he said.

‘Climate Astronauts,’ was the result of an innovative collaboration with the City of Bonn’s Climate Ambassadors program.The song was originally developed and performed with Bernadette La Hengst, the Berlin-based singer/songwriteras part of Theatre Bonn’s SAVE THE WORLD II festival in September 2015.

The winners of the 2015 Global Youth Music Contest were determined by a combination of online voting and a jury composed of representatives from IAAI, UNESCO MOST and UNFCCC ACE. Winners were announced in November 2015 and recognized at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, France, in December 2015.

The foundation Bonn Climate Ambassadors was established in May 2010 and successfully runs the programme “BONNI & Bo – climate drivers licence” with Bonn primary schools since 2012. Four thousand third graders have achieved their certificate to date.

Gottfried-Kinkel-Primary School was the cradle of the climate drivers’ license programme. Teachers from this school were the ones to develop and test the teaching materials together with cartoon artist Özi.

Watch the winning Climate Astronauts video below: