Ho Chi Minh City authorities have recommended switching off non-essential lights for one hour next week in response to the annual global Earth Hour campaign, which takes place on the last Saturday of March every year.

Taking part in this annual worldwide movement organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the municipal People’s Committee encourages all households, businesses, and government offices to turn off unnecessary electric lights from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm on March 26.

The Earth Hour 2022 campaign will be conducted around the world with the theme ‘Shape Our Future.’

The city’s administration has set forth two organizational options for the Earth Hour 2022, depending on actual COVID-19 developments.

In the event of favorable epidemic conditions, the Earth Hour response events will be held both directly at the Youth Culture House in District 1 and virtually on the Vietnam Earth Hour fan page, connected to 280 other countries.

Otherwise, online organization will be conducted via live streams on the fan page. 

Among the major Earth Hour events on March 26 will be Green Action Dance performance, exchanges with Earth Hour ambassadors, and the execution of the Earth Hour campaign by switching off lights.

The city will also organize many other activities in March, such as Green Movement, Green Space Expansion, and Let’s Use Green Energy Together.

Cycling parades will be launched on the main streets of the city, 1,000 trees will be planted along the roadsides, and a solar energy system will be installed at Binh Tan District Children’s House.

The southern city will also implement projects such as Connecting Green Messages, Living Safely with Plastic, Green Food, and Green Leap, through which it will take specific actions to convey its environmental protection messages to the world.

The People’s Committee has assigned the Department of Industry and Trade to coordinate with the local Electricity Corporation to estimate the amount of electricity saved in an hour of turning off lights on March 26, and report the results to the municipal authorities.

In one hour of switching off lights during the Earth Hour on March 27, 2021, the whole country saved 353,000 kWh of electricity, equivalent to about VND658.1 million (US$28,670), according to the National Load Dispatch Center under the Vietnam Electricity Group.

Every year, proponents in over 190 countries and territories unite to raise awareness of the issues facing the planet at 8:30 pm on the last Saturday of March.

The first Earth Hour was conducted on March 31, 2007 at 7:30 pm in Sydney, Australia, where more than 2.2 million individuals and 2,000 businesses switched off their lights for one hour, which marked the beginning of the Earth Hour movement, according to WWF.

Today, Earth Hour is one of the world’s largest grassroots movements for the environment, through which participants show their support for nature and climate, WWF said.

“Earth Hour is more than just an hour for earth -- it's a movement for our own futures, for the benefit of the people and planet,” said the earthhour.org website.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!