New York, US (PANA) – American singer-songwriter Pharrell Williams joined local students at an event held Saturday at UN headquarters to celebrate the International Day of Happiness and highlight the importance of tackling climate change.
“As the global community marked the International Day of Happiness, we have to recognize the relevance of happiness and well-being as universal goals in the lives of people worldwide,” he said.
At the event, held in the UN General Assembly Hall in New York, in partnership with the UN Foundation, Williams also launched the world’s largest online “Happy Party”, inviting everybody to log onto globalhappyparty.com and upload their own photos that will then be transformed into an animated gift to the tune of his Grammy Award-winning song, “Happy.”
He told the children, who attended the event that, “happiness is their birthright”, stressing that, “we have to move from climate change to climate action, and we are in trouble, but we can change.”
The US musician noted that the aim of the “Happy Party” was to drive supporters to sign the “Live Earth Petition”, rallying 1 billion people to demand world leaders commit to tackling climate change at the summit to be held in Paris in December and make climate action a global priority.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday in a message to mark the International Day of Happiness, stated: “Happiness for the entire human family is one of the main goals of the United Nations, and peace, prosperity, lives of dignity for all – this is what we seek.”
