Iconic buildings go dark for Earth Hour 2024: Understanding significance of annual event

Several prominent buildings across the globe, including Big Ben in London, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Sydney Opera House in Sydney and the Colosseum in Rome went dark on Saturday to mark this year’s Earth Hour – an annual event aimed at collectively supporting the planet.

In the UAE, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa and Museum of the Future also joined in the day of environmental action. On Friday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres asked people in different countries to participate as the “need is urgent”.

Turn off lights and do something positive for Earth

Stressing that global climate is collapsing as global temperatures keep breaking unprecedented levels each year, Guterres said in a video message: “On Earth Hour, millions of people around the world switch off the lights to shine a light on the plight of our planet.”

Spearheaded by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Earth Hour calls on supporters of climate action to symbolically switch off and ‘give an hour for Earth’, spending 60 minutes doing something positive for the planet, including turning lights off, signing a petition and protecting wildlife.

Last year marked the biggest Earth Hour since its beginning in 2007, according to WWF, as scores of people in 190 countries and territories gave a staggering at least 410,000 hours to the environment, engaging in a series of notable positive activities for Earth.

Earth Hour – beacon of positivity, hope, inspiration

The annual event is meant to raise awareness about sustainability and environmental issues. 2024 marked the 18th edition of Earth Hour, run under the theme ‘Biggest Hour for Earth”. It encouraged people to turn off their lights from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm as a symbolic gesture.

Earth Hour 2024 served as a beacon of positivity, hope and inspiration, rallying people across the globe to come together in solidarity for the environment. The objective is to engage as many individuals as possible, especially those not entirely aware of the crisis we face.

Copernicus Climate Change Service recently confirmed 2023 as the hottest year ever. In addition, later on the entity stressed that last month was the hottest February on record and had said the same for January 2024 too. The need for climate action has never been this urgent.