What Did You Do for Earth Hour?

The global campaign Earth Hour was first launched by WWF in Australia in 2007. It advocates each of us to switch off unnecessary lights and appliances for an hour, on March 28 of each year, as a statement for action on climate change. This year, more than 1 billion people in 88 countries and more than 4,000 cities took part. Worldwatch research fellow Anna da Costa reports on events in India's capital city.

What did you do for Earth Hour? Here in Delhi, many of us opened an umbrella.

Earth Hour this year saw a totally unseasonal deluge of rain in Delhi. Whether it was the monsoon coming early, or the February rains late, it was significant to say the least.

However, citizens also managed to save a reported 10,000 megawatts of power.

The campaign was, it seems, such a success that the Delhi government plans to take it monthly. The government hopes that an hour of action each month could save 100 megawatts a pop.

Speaking to the Indo-Asian News Service, Delhi Environment Secretary J.K. Dadoo said, "Earth Hour will continue. All lights in government buildings should be switched off at 8:30 p.m. on the last working day of the month for an hour." The government has also asked the national archeological survey to switch the lights off at Delhi's national monuments at these times.

In order to advertise this initiative, the government is planning to launch a media campaign, as well as working with Resident Welfare Associations, market associations, and schools to engage them in the monthly event.

The hope is that such an effort could spread to other cities in India, and ultimately across the world. Ravi Singh, Secretary General and CEO of WWF India said that the Delhi government's interest in creating a monthly event could inspire other Indian cities and individuals to follow. 

"The response of the city of Delhi and its government exceeded our expectations in both the extent and enthusiasm for the Earth Hour event," Singh said in an email. "If India takes this ahead, we hope that other countries will also see the wisdom of taking such initiatives forward, leading to the possibility of a genuine, voluntary and self perpetuating global movement; a movement linked by the underlying thread of common participation."

Anna da Costa is a Worldwatch research fellow based in New Delhi.

This article is a product of Eye on Earth, Worldwatch Institute's online news service. For permission to reprint Eye on Earth content, please contact Juli Diamond at jdiamond@worldwatch.org.