Earth Hour: less is better for eco cause,says Delhi govt

Buoyed by the success of Earth Hour on March 28 last year,an enthusiastic Delhi government announced it would hold its own earth hours every month on the last working Friday. With enthusiasm dipping both for the campaign’s strength and the public response,the government has decided to keep it simple,and annual.

“We have decided to keep Earth Hour an annual event as we feel that if it is repeated too often,it may lose its seriousness,” Environment Secretary Dharmendra says.

Last year,Earth Hour was taken up as a monthly event and then converted into a quarterly event. It will now officially remain an annual event.

The Environment department has held two meetings with city discoms NDPL and BSES on Earth Hour,wherein they have been told to switch off non-essential lights like billboards and hoardings on Saturday night.

The plan is to also award the Resident Welfare Association (RWA) that will save the most energy. An official said the best RWA may be given a prize under the government’s Bhagidari scheme to incentivise Earth Hour.

Earth Hour was first celebrated last year as a run-up to the Copenhagen Climate Change summit in December 2009. Organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF),it received unprecedented support from several countries. Many cities like Delhi declared they would celebrate their own Earth Hours henceforth.

With more climate change summits coming up this year,pressure is building up on states to showcase their solidarity with the cause. This year,WWF Australia has announced a study to see how activities like the Earth Hour impact people’s day-to-day lives.