WWF's Earth Hour sparks worldwide unity

The campaign, which hopes to reach out to more than one billion people in 1,000 cities around the world, asks individuals, businesses and governments to switch off lights for just one hour on Saturday March 28 at 8:30pm to create a platform of support for action on climate change.

Earth Hour aims to demonstrate unprecedented solidarity and provide a visual global mandate that will put the heat on world leaders meeting in Copenhagen in December 2009 to strike a new global deal on climate change.

The lights out initiative, which began in Sydney in 2007 as a public awareness raising campaign, has grown significantly over the past two years and now has 74 cities ready to flick the switch in 2009.

At 8.30 pm on Saturday March 28, the world will witness some of the most recognisable landmarks on the planet dim the lights in support of decisive action on climate change. Icons switching off include Burj Al Arab and the world's tallest hotel building - the Burj Dubai, the tallest free-standing structure in the Americas - the CN Tower in Toronto, Moscow's Federation Tower and in Rome - Quirinale - the official residence of the President of the Italian Republic, Giorgio Napolitano.

Auckland's Sky Tower - the tallest tower in the Southern Hemisphere will go dark, joined by Australia's iconic sails of the Sydney Opera House and across in Cape Town, South Africa, the iconic Table Mountain will mark Earth Hour by turning off its flood lights.

Director General of WWF International Jim Leape said:

"When leaders gather in Copenhagen in December 2009 to negotiate a new deal on climate they must feel that the eyes of the world are upon them."

"Earth Hour provides an opportunity for the public to send a powerful signal that they are watching and expect action," said Mr Leape.

Executive Director of Earth Hour Global, Mr Andy Ridley said, "Recent events have shown that the world can unite in a time of crisis. The global economic crunch is an example where, when it matters, decisive multi-lateral action by powerful nations has been shown to be achievable."

"Following its dramatic debut in Sydney in 2007, Earth Hour 2008 brought together more than 370 cities in 35 countries and an estimated 50 million people," said Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, Managing Director, EWS-WWF. "Earth Hour demonstrates that small actions on a mass scale can make a difference to global warming and reductions in energy consumption.

WWF UAE is pleased with the endorsement from Dubai Municipality and from the Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (EAD) to help us make Earth Hour 2009 a successful and meaningful event. However, rather than limit our efforts to Dubai or Abu Dhabi, we want to encourage all UAE residents to make the United Arab Emirates the first country to observe Earth Hour in 2009." More importantly, EWS-WWF aims to send a clear message that UAE residents must reduce their energy consumption beyond the sixty minutes of Earth Hour.

EWS-WWF is launching a campaign and websites in parallel to the official Earth Hour website for UAE residents and businesses to get information on how to reduce energy consumption and adopt a sustainable lifestyle.

We need everyone to get involved; residents, businesses, schools, universities, government, hotels, restaurants, in fact, anywhere where it is safe to turn off the lights for one hour," added Al Mubarak.

Mr David Miller, Mayor of Toronto and chair of the C40 Large Cities Climate Leadership Group said, "The C40 Climate Leadership Group is about cities working together to drive down greenhouse gas emissions and that is why as Chair of the C40 I support Earth Hour. It's crucial that cities and the public come together to take action against climate change and Earth Hour provides a great platform to do that."

Mr Ridley also said 2009 was the planet's 'destiny year', with critical decisions needed to be made at the Copenhagen meeting on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

"2009 is the year we decide the future of the earth. It is the year the world finally agrees on a plan to massively reduce carbon emissions across the globe. This is the time to invest in new ways of doing business in a new low carbon economy. We must all step over the line together. The sum of our actions today can change history and secure the future of our planet."

The extensive WWF conservation network also has more than 30 teams working in countries such as Brazil, Greece, India, Peru, Spain, Switzerland and France, ready to support a local Earth Hour roll out.