Hong Kong cast a vote to fight climate change
HONG KONG, 28 March, 2009 – At 8.30pm tonight, the city of lights went dark and joined 4000 other cities and towns in 88 countries in an hour of global solidarity. More than 1,800 Hong Kong buildings and landmarks including International Finance Centre, Cultural Centre Complex and Tsing Ma Bridge; over 600 companies and organizations, over 160 schools and all universities joined thousands of people across Hong Kong who switched off their lights for an hour in support of WWF's Earth Hour as a call for action on climate change.
New Zealand and Fiji were the first countries to kick off the world's largest social movement on climate change. Hong Kong, and other major cities in China, lead Asia in to Earth Hour.
During the day, about 40,000 people watched Earth Hour videos shown at Rugby Sevens at the Hong Kong Stadium. The Symphony of Lights in the Victoria Harbour was suspended. The city began to go into darkness at 8:30pm when neon signs and lights of buildings across Hong Kong started to go out. Businesses at commercial areas such as Tsim Sha Tsui and Causeway Bay also dimmed their lights to show support, while bars and restaurants in Lan Kwai Fong and Wanchai were lit up with candles to spread the message. At the community level, 18 District Councils switched off non-essential lights in their facilities.
"Hong Kong, together with other cities around the world, made a statement by turning off their lights for one hour. This simple action on this historic day will have reverberations into the future. WWF will take this global voice to Copenhagen in December this year, where world leaders will be coming together to make decisions about green house gas emissions and climate change," said Trevor Yang, Chairman of WWF Hong Kong.
Beijing, Shanghai, Baoding and Macau also took part. Lights went off at The Bird's Nest Stadium, Water Cube, the Oriental Pearl Tower and Macau Tower Convention.
Cities, towns and communities across Europe, Africa and the Americas will take the relay baton of this global phenomenon with lights switching out at landmarks such as the Great Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, the Acropolis in Athens, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Tower Bridge in London, the Empire State Building in New York and Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro.
In December 2009, world leaders will meet in Copenhagen to agree on a post-Kyoto policy for tackling climate change. WWF is expecting one billion people to vote with their light switch during Earth Hour that would create a powerful mandate for our leaders to take strong and decisive action on climate change.
