The theme to this year’s International Children’s Painting Competition – ‘We’ve got the power’ – has inspired a powerful winning painting for the European region from Evdokia Bogacheva of Ukraine.

The artwork by Evdokia, aged 12, features on the front cover of this newsletter and won the European prize for its originality, overall impression and clarity in interpreting the theme of sustainable energy.

Renewable sources of energy such as geothermal, wind, solar and the ocean - all of which are represented in the winning painting - are part of the transition that must inevitably move our economy away from the current heavy reliance on fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas, which are finite and contribute to climate change. This year’s winning painting for the European region therefore conveys one of the best ways we can all move to ‘green’ our economy.

“Once I started this painting, I could not stop because I wanted to express my feelings and thoughts through the beauty of these elements,” Evdokia told the UNEP Regional Office for Europe when informed she had won the prize. “I tried to show in my painting the kinds of energies that could give a new clean pulse to humanity, and allow wild animals to live in a clean environment, so that we may see them not only as illustrations in books,” she explained.

As the regional winner for Europe, Evdokia will receive a $1000 prize and her painting will compete with others from around the world for the global award later this year. The 2015 edition of the competition is held in support of the UN decade of Sustainable Energy for All.

The International Children’s Painting Competition is organised annually by UNEP and the Foundation for Global Peace and Environment. Since its foundation in 1991, more than three million entries have been received from children in over 100 countries.

For more details please contact: isabelle.valentiny@unep.org