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Pharrell Williams calls for action on climate change and green, decent jobs

International music sensation Pharrell Williams calls on the world of work to tackle climate change to ensure young people and the planet have a sustainable future.

Press release | 11 June 2015
GENEVA ‒ Multi-award winning musician Pharrell Williams, author of the global hit "Happy", has called on the international community to tackle the dual challenges of climate change and youth unemployment.

"I believe that climate change is one of the defining issues of our time, one that threatens our very existence on Earth," says Williams in a video address to the ILO's World of Work Summit that this year focuses on climate change, ahead of the UN Conference on the issue in Paris this December (COP21).

"We’ve also got another serious problem on our hands: millions of young people who don’t have jobs, and don’t have access to the education and skills they need to get them," he adds.


Williams calls on the key players of the world of work ‒ governments, employers and workers ‒ to ensure that green, decent jobs are right at the top of the agenda when the world meets at the climate change conference at the end of the year.

Williams is the creative director of "Live Earth ‒ Road to Paris", a series of concerts around the world in support of action on climate change, in partnership with the United Nations and former US Vice-President Al Gore.

He has been an advocate on ILO issues for several years. Back in 2013, he attended an event hosted by Vanity Fair magazine and FIAT to promote the ILO's work on green jobs for youth. Last year, he took part in the recording of the music video of ‘Til Everyone Can See, a song written by Incubus' guitarist Mike Einziger in support of the ILO's Red Card to Child labour campaign. He is also a supporter of the ILO's campaign to end modern slavery.

The ILO's World of Work summit takes place during the International Labour Conference in Geneva on Thursday 11 June. French President François Hollande, the President of Panama, Juan Carlos Varela, and the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Kailash Satyarthi, as well representatives of employers and workers, will address the summit. The event will be broadcast live from 08:00 GMT.