More than 4,000 organizations and individuals in Ho Chi Minh City have registered to take part in Earth Hour 2011, which aims to raise public awareness for saving power and using it more efficiently to reduce the negative impact of climate change.
The city will switch off all electric lights from 8:30 – 9:30pm on March 26 in response to this call.
Co.opMart, Big C, Vinatex supermarkets, Continental Hotel and Megastar cinemas have pledged to switch off their entire air-conditioning systems and billboards for one hour.
The city will also mobilize 60 café shops to join the event and propagate awareness of the cause to 1,000 customers at the café shops. The Café shops have pledged to switch off lights at least for one day each month and use electricity saving devices.
This year’s national Earth Hour event will be held in Hue City.
There are 29 cities and provinces registered to join the event so far. The number is expected to increase by March 26.
Earth Hour is an annual global event organized by World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and is held on the last Saturday of March, asking households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights and other electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness for the need to take action on climate change.
Earth Hour was conceived by WWF and The Sydney Morning Herald in 2007, when 2.2 million residents of Sydney participated by turning off all non-essential lights. Following Sydney's lead, many other cities around the world adopted the event in 2008.
Earth Hour 2010 has reportedly been the biggest Earth Hour yet, by garnering more than one billion participants. 126 countries participated in Earth Hour 2010.
In Vietnam, the demand for electricity fell 500,000 kWh during Earth Hour 2010, which was three times more than the first time the country joined the event in 2009.
