Cities worldwide take part in WWF event to call for global action on climate change

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Cities around the world were marking Earth Hour on Saturday by turning off lights at 8:30pm local time in a call for global action on climate change.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Victoria Harbour before (top) and after (bottom) its lights went out for the Earth Hour environmental campaign in Hong Kong. Photograph: Dale de la Rey/AFP/Getty Images

The Earth Hour gesture calls for greater awareness and more sparing use of resources, especially fossil fuels that produce carbon gases and lead to global warming.

Beginning in Sydney in 2007, Earth Hour has spread to more than 180 countries, with tens of millions of people joining in.

In Hong Kong, major buildings along Victoria Harbour turned off their non-essential lights and the city’s popular tourist attraction known as the Symphony of Lights was cancelled.

More than 3,000 corporations in Hong Kong signed up for Earth Hour 2019, according to the WWF Hong Kong website. Skyscrapers including the Bank of China Tower and the HSBC Building in Central, the city’s major business district, switched off their lights in response to the global movement.

The City of Lights also turned off the Eiffel Tower’s nightly twinkle to mark Earth Hour. Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo dimmed the lights on the city’s most famous monument for an hour.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Eiffel Tower, illuminated (top) and switched off. Photograph: Geoffroy van der Hasselt/AFP/Getty Images



In Taipei, Taiwan’s capital, the island’s tallest building, Taipei 101, joined surrounding buildings in shutting off the lights as part of the Earth Hour event.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The Parthenon temple atop the Acropolis hill before (top) and during Earth Hour (below) in Athens. Photograph: Costas Baltas/Reuters

In coal-reliant Poland, top tourist sites also turned off their lights when local clocks hit 8:30pm. In the capital Warsaw, the spired landmark Palace of Culture and Science turned off its night illumination, along with some churches and Old Town walls.

Lights were also switched off in several landmarks in the Greek capital. The Acropolis, Athens City Hall and Lycabettus Hill, towering above the Athens centre, went dark and the parliament building joined in. However, calls by the mayor of Athens for citizens to join in by turning off the lights in their houses went mostly unheeded.

The Empire State Building in New York was planning to participate in Earth Hour at 8.30pm local time (12.30am GMT).