Canada Bay Council Supports Earth Hour Initiative

On the evening of 31 March 2007, the World Wildlife Fund-Australia (WWF) and Fairfax invite all Sydney households and businesses to turn off their lights for one hour at 7.30pm. This is Earth Hour.

“According to the Stern Report, we have no more than 10-15 years in which to address the crisis of global warming before runaway climate change sets in”, said Cr Bernard Rooney, who supported the Earth Hour initiative in Council. “It may not be fully appreciated that energy conservation – along with clean, renewable energy – is to be a major component of the response to global warming.”

“Earth Hour has the full support of the NSW Premier, the Lord Mayor of Sydney and all city and emergency services, and I am delighted that Canada Bay Council will also support it”, Cr Rooney said.

The objectives are:

• To have as many individuals, households and businesses as possible to turn off their lights as a symbolic statement about the greatest contributor to climate change (coal – fired electricity).
• Educate the community on the threat of global warming and what the individual can do to make a difference to reduce emissions.
• Have corporate participants to communicate Earth Hour through internal and external channels and commit to turn off their lights at night.
• Provide precedent for an annual event and seek involvement from other cities across Australia and around the world.
• Measure the change in Sydney’s greenhouse gas emissions, aiming for a 5% reduction in the year following Earth Hour.

Earth Hour Actions:

1. Lights out at 7.30-8.30pm 31 March 2007.
2. Turn appliances off standby. Appliances on standby chew up almost 5% of your electricity bill.
3. Turn off anything that doesn’t need to be on.
4. Switch to Green Power. If all Australians switched to Green power Australia’s greenhouse pollution would be cut by 30% in one year. Equivalent of more than 40 million cars.
5. Tell a friend.