26/3/2008

Cardiff Council is throwing its support behind a global initiative to turn off the lights for an hour on Saturday, March 29.
Earth Hour was conceived by WWF (formerly the World Wildlife Fund) to deliver a powerful message about the need for urgent action on global warming.

Earth Hour uses the simple action of turning off lights for one hour and was pioneered last year by WWF-Australia in Sydney when 2.2 million people and 2,100 Sydney businesses turned off their lights.

This massive collective effort reduced Sydney's energy consumption by 10.2 per cent for one hour, which is the equivalent effect of taking 48,000 cars off the road for a year.
Following Sydney's lead, cities around the world have already signed up to encourage residents and businesses to turn off their lights for an hour from 8pm to 9pm on March 29.

And Cardiff will be joining some of the world's major capital cities, including Copenhagen, Toronto, Chicago, Melbourne, Brisbane, Tel Aviv, Bangkok and San Francisco, in calling on people to turn off non essential lights for an hour.

Councillor Mark Stephens, Executive member for Economic Development and Finance, said: "Cardiff Council is happy to support WWF's Earth Hour initiative and is calling on all residents and businesses to show their backing for this initiative and turn off their lights for an hour on March 29.

"Cardiff Council has consistently demonstrated its commitment to the environment and this follows on from our involvement with the Carbon Trust and our aim to reduce by 60 per cent the authority's carbon emissions from non domestic buildings and waste by 2018."

Councillor Simon Wakefield, Executive member for Environment and Transport, added: "The Council has a vision for the future of Cardiff which embraces Cardiff as a Green Capital. We are very happy to be involved in WWF's Earth Hour initiative and hope that the messages it promotes will help make a difference globally. I urge everyone in the city to try and make a difference for this one hour."

Morgan Parry, Head of WWF Cymru said: "We are delighted to see Cardiff Council set an example to the rest of Wales by helping the capital become among one of the first British cities to get involved in turning off all non-essential lighting for Earth Hour.

"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," says Morgan Parry. "Climate change is a global challenge that requires global solutions and Earth Hour is making it clear to those in power that people across the world are ready to get involved."