The City will be switching off the lights on Table Mountain and in its own buildings for one hour in support of the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) Earth Hour 2012, which takes place on Saturday 31 March from 20:30 to 21:30 (local time).
“The City will join hundreds of millions of people, businesses and governments from around the world in support of this initiative – the largest environmental event in history, and we are asking our residents to do the same,” says Alderman Belinda Walker, Mayoral Committee Member for Economic, Environmental Spatial Planning.
More than 5 200 cities and towns in 135 countries worldwide switched off their lights for Earth Hour 2011, sending a powerful message for action on climate change. It also ushered in a new era with members going beyond the hour to commit to lasting action for the planet.
“The City has a comprehensive and integrated Energy and Climate Action Plan, outlined in its Moving Mountains report, which comprises 11 objectives, with targets and detailed implementation plans involving over 40 programmes and more than 120 projects,” says Alderman Walker.
The City has already put a number of these plans into action. By the end of this year, all of the traffic lights in Cape Town will have been retrofitted with LEDs, and a very substantial portion of its street lights will have been replaced with energy efficient bulbs.
City buildings are also being retrofitted. Further phases include installing meters which are able to monitor energy consumption half hourly. The building retrofits are also accompanied by a behaviourial change campaign for staff.
In addition, the City has been working with Cape Town businesses through the Energy Efficiency Forum; and assisting residents to save electricity and money through its comprehensive Electricity Savings campaign.
- For information and tips on saving electricity visit the City’s Electricity Savings website
- Click here to download the City’s Moving Mountains report
- For more about Earth Hour visit www.earthhour.org.za
About Earth Hour
Earth Hour is a global grass-roots movement encouraging individuals, businesses and governments around the world to take positive actions for the environment, and celebrating their commitment to the planet by switching off their lights for one designated hour.
Earth Hour 2012 aims to show the actions that people, businesses and governments world-wide are taking to reduce their environmental impact. Thereby establishing and encouraging others to join an interconnected global community engaged in dialogue and resource sharing that generates real solutions to environmental challenges.
The highlight of Earth Hour 2012 will see the world’s most iconic landmarks go dark for one designated hour, as hundreds of millions of people transcend race, religion, culture, society, generation and geography, switching off their lights in a global celebration of their commitment to protect the one thing that unites us all – the planet.
