The school initiative Plant-for-the-Planet came into being in the year 2007, when the then 9 year-old Felix Finkbeiner gave a school presentation on the climate crisis. During his research, he came across the Kenyan environment activist and Nobel peace prize winner Wangari Maathai, who planted 30 million trees over 30 years. At the end of his presentation, Felix outlined his vision, that children in every country on the planet could plant a million trees. Every tree planted extracts around three tonnes of CO₂ from the atmosphere until it is fully grown. 

Plant-for-the-Planet became a worldwide children's movement in August 2009 at the UNEP Tunza Children and Youth Conference in Daejeon, South Korea. Hundreds of children from 56 different countries joined the project: they all wanted to turn the idea into an action and plant a million trees in their respective countries. 

Since then Plant-for-the-Planet has developed into an international network of world leaders who champion climate justice in terms of the reduction of green house gases and an even distribution of these emissions for all people. The fact that the consequences of the climate crisis unfairly affect poorer countries to a greater degree is a particularly important aspect for the children.