Hundreds of landmarks in Doha and many other cities will dim their lights on Saturday, as people around the world go briefly off-grid to mark Earth Hour.
The 60-minute annual campaign organised by the conservation group WWF encourages citizens, communities, businesses and organisations to switch the lights off for an hour from 8:30pm to highlight the plight of planet Earth.
Now in its ninth year, Earth Hour’s goal is not to achieve measurable electricity savings, but to raise awareness of the need for sustainable energy use, and this year also to demand action to halt planet-harming climate change.
More than 1,200 landmarks and close to 40 Unesco world heritage sites in over 170 countries are taking part in the campaign.
Earth Hour 2015 takes place just months before UN member states are meant to sign an ambitious pact in Paris in December to limit galloping global warming, and just days before a loose end-March deadline for “those parties ready to do so” to submit their carbon-curbing pledges.
From a small, symbolic event held in Sydney in 2007, Earth Hour has grown to a global campaigning event with a festive twist.
This year will include a glow-in-the-dark Zumba party in the Philippines, a co-ordinated candlelit dinner in Finland billed as the world’s largest, restaurant dinners by candlelight in London, and a power-generating dance floor to light up the Eiffel Tower after its hour-long sleep in Paris, according to WWF.
The organisers have published a list of ideas for individual participants, which include barbecuing instead of stove cooking, a candlelit street party or a picnic under the stars.
This year’s message is: “Use your power to change climate change”, according to the Earth Hour website.
An estimated 9mn people in 162 countries took part in Earth Hour last year, according to the WWF, of whom 85% “said that they felt inspired to do more to protect the planet, such as making small changes to live more sustainably and reduce their impact on the environment”.
Sarah Olexsak, the author of a study on the impact of Earth Hour, says that in 10 countries where the event’s impact on the grid was measured over six years of the campaign, there was an average 4% drop in electricity consumption during the 60-minute window of darkness.
“We found that large-scale purposeful behaviour change can result in a measurable reduction in electricity at the grid level,” she says.
“Evidence shows that extensive behaviour change requires a first step. People like to be consistent in their behaviour and self-image, so by taking that first step in participating in Earth Hour, they show a commitment to energy saving that they may then carry out in other areas of their lives.”
