Iran has marked Earth Hour by dimming the lights at landmark buildings across the country as part of a global movement to raise awareness about energy consumption and climate change.

Landmark buildings across Iran, including Tehran’s iconic Milad and Azadi towers, turned off their lights from 1600 GMT to 1700 GMT on Saturday.

Iran’s Ministry of Energy called on Iranians from all walks of life to join the symbolic global movement and turn off non-essential lights and other electronic devices in honor of the planet Earth.

Earth Hour worldwide movement, first organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) conservation group in Sydney, Australia, in 2007, is observed annually in more than 7,000 cities and towns across 187 countries on a specific day at the end of March from 8:30 to 9:30 pm (local time).

Every year, the event starts at Sydney and moves westward to the other parts of the world. The following video shows the inauguration of the 2018 Earth Hour in Sydney.

Iran joined the global initiative in 2011 and has far been expanding its participation in the global event.

The United Nations Headquarters and the Empire State Building in New York, Paris’ Eiffel Tower, Moscow's Kremlin, Sydney's Opera House and Hong Kong's Victoria Harbor are among the iconic structures that will plunge into darkness to draw attentions to the global warming caused by burning of fossil fuels in vehicles, factories and power plants.

In 2015, nations agreed in Paris to restrict average global warming to two degrees Celsius over pre-industrial temperatures.

Scientists say by achieving the global temperature level agreed in the Paris Climate Accord humankind can at least avoid worst-case scenarios in terms of rising sea levels, worsening droughts and floods, and increasingly violent superstorms.