Friday 14 March 2008

"Earth Hour is a simple way for people to show that they care about climate change," said Colin Butfield, Head of Campaigns at WWF-UK.

"WWF is challenging cities across the nation to sign up to switching off, and the response we're getting is really exciting," he added.

Last year's success
Initiated by WWF-Australia in Sydney last year, Earth Hour 2007 saw 2.2 million people and more than 2,100 businesses turn their lights off across the city for one hour – resulting in a 10.2 per cent drop in energy consumption during that period. This impact was double what had been predicted, and is the equivalent of 48,000 cars being taken off the road for a year. This year, Earth Hour has gone global with WWF-UK urging people across the United Kingdom to join in.

Earth Hour worldwide
To promote Earth Hour across the country, WWF-UK has joined forces with GCap Media, the UK's largest commercial radio company. Working with GCap's One Network – involving 42 stations reaching more than 5.5 million listeners – WWF has been able to tap into the unique relationship each station has with its local community to help Earth Hour in the UK recruit the support of cities such as Norwich and Birmingham to the project, with many more set to follow as support grows. Famous UK buildings – from Brighton Pier to Highgrove House to the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth – have joined iconic global landmarks such as the San Francisco Bay Bridge and The Sears Tower in Chicago by promising to put out their lights for Earth Hour. The initiative is also being backed by well-known celebrities such as Zoe Ball, Natalie Imbruglia and Nelly Furtado.

So far, 24 major cities across the world have committed to take part in Earth Hour, from Melbourne to Manila and Brisbane to Bangkok, via Chicago, Copenhagen, Tel Aviv and Toronto, and the number is steadily rising.

"Earth Hour will send a strong, symbolic signal that people all around the world are deeply concerned about climate change and expect their political leaders and businesses to take action before it's too late," said Butfield.

Global challenge
"However it can't stop there. Switching off your lights for one hour isn't going to solve the challenge presented by climate change – it's a global challenge that requires global solutions. After last year's UN Climate Change Summit in Bali, the eyes of the world must be focused on ensuring that a tough new global agreement, to succeed the existing set of Kyoto targets, is reached at the critical conference in Copenhagen in 2009," Butfield explained.

"Put simply, we have 18 months in which to reach a global deal outlining a new strategy to control emissions of greenhouse gases. But hopefully, Earth Hour will demonstrate to the world's leaders that people are throwing down the mandate for real, committed action, and are challenging them to reach that deal in Copenhagen," he said.

WWF-UK has been campaigning for the Climate Change Bill, which is currently passing through parliament, to be strengthened. In particular, WWF-UK is calling for the Bill to include a target to cut UK emissions of CO₂ by at least 80% by 2050, and for the Bill to include emissions from international aviation and shipping – the fastest growing sources of emissions.