Brussels, 27 March 2010 - Up to 750.000 Belgian families, based on figures from Elia, have turned off the lights for an hour today for WWF's Earth Hour. This year the action was more widespread than the other years, which brought peaks of the order of the equivalent of 750.000 families already to 19h00. By this action, Belgium has for the second year in a row, made its voice heard in the fight against climate change. In total, 324 cities and Belgian municipalities and 671 companies participated in Earth Hour. In Belgium, Earth Hour has been a huge success.
Earth Hour, more than necessary after Copenhagen
Earth Hour is part of WWF's global campaign against climate change. After the failure of the Copenhagen summit at the end of 2009, world leaders are due this year to put in place the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol. The Copenhagen Accord is a hundred thousand leagues from the fair, ambitious and legally binding agreement that everyone has been waiting for. It is precisely for this reason that we must maintain pressure on Heads of State and Government to show much more ambition at the next UN climate conference in Cancun, Mexico, end 2010 .
Earth Hour, a signal for the Belgian Presidency
As early as July 2010, Belgium, at the head of the European Union, will have to do everything to convince the world to stay below the 2 ° global temperature increase mark. To achieve this, Europe will have to show an ambitious and fair position in the negotiations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
From the Atomium via the motorways to the Lion of Waterloo and the citadel of Namur
In Belgium, many famous monuments have been plunged into the dark for Earth Hour: the Atomium and the Grand-Place of Brussels, the citadel of Namur, the Basilica of Koekelberg, the Minard theater, the opera house and the hotel. city of Ghent, the three bridges of the Brussels canal, ... Each of the participating 324 cities and municipalities has extinguished the most famous monuments of their territory in order to sensitize their inhabitants. Seven of the ten provinces, the three regions and the federal authorities also participated. One of the most visible initiatives has certainly been the extinction of lights on the motorways of Wallonia and Flanders.
Massive support from the corporate world
In these times of economic and financial crisis, WWF is more than satisfied with the massive response of the corporate world. In Belgium, 671 companies turned off the lights and encouraged their staff and customers to participate. At the level of the written press, WWF-Belgium collaborated for the occasion with Scripta advertising agencies. The 27 March, the latter have proposed ads 'top topic' around Earth Hour in all their titles. Alongside this, the WWF has also worked with Samsung, Nature and Terroir and 7sur7.be. We were also able to count on the support of Ikea and Coca-Cola, among others, who both extinguished their logo, Kinepolis, Exki who organized a candlelight dinner, Aquatopia who plunged his fish into black, from the graphical sector Febelgra, and from the Brussels hotel federation, which has prepared a special 'Earth Hour' menu.
Hundreds of millions of people in 125 countries
On a global scale, more than 4000 cities in 125 countries are participating in Earth Hour. Among the best known: Rome, Paris, New York, Manila, Mexico. All in all, more than 1200 famous landmarks around the world will be plunged into the dark, including the Egyptian pyramids, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Piccadilly Circus in London, the Forbidden City in Beijing and the Hiroshima Peace Museum. . Tens of thousands of companies are also taking part in Earth Hour including Coca-Cola, Allianz, PriciwaterhouseCoopers, HSBC, IKEA, Canon, Hilton and Mc Donalds. With these massive participations, Earth Hour is a never-before-seen action of hope that shows that, more than ever before, the world demands action against climate change.
http://www.wwf.be/fr/?inc=news&newsid=773&pageid=news