Earth Hour 2019

Earth Hour is an international call for people to protect our planet by taking a stand against climate change.

Switching off your lights and appliances on 30 March from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm is a symbolic way of showing that you’re against climate change and that you’re supporting Earth Hour.

South Africa and energy

The campaign is championed by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). In 2018 an unprecedented 188 countries and territories participated and close to 18 000 landmarks were switched off. Earth Hour is the perfect example of the impact millions of people can have when united for a common cause.

South Africa is heavily dependent on coal (fossil fuel) to generate energy. This isn’t a sustainable way of electricity generation and fossil fuel is also responsible for high carbon emissions, which leads to climate change. We need a good mix of renewable energy and fossil fuel to reduce our carbon emissions, supply cheaper electricity and to make energy production sustainable in the long term. 

In South Africa the primary sources of renewable energy are:

• Solar: Solar energy works by capturing the sun’s energy and turning it into electricity.
• Wind: Wind power is the use of air flow through wind turbines to provide the power to generate electricity.
• Hydroelectric: Flowing water creates energy that can be captured and turned into electricity. This is called hydroelectric power or hydropower.
• Biomass: Biomass is a fuel that is developed from organic materials (e.g. scrap lumber, certain crops, manure, etc.)  a renewable and sustainable source of energy used to create electricity or other forms of power.

What you can do

For more information about Earth Hour, there are Earth Hour 2019 toolkits to help individuals, schools, communities, corporate and others with the following:

• Understanding what Earth Hour is and why it’s important.
• Explains Earth Hour 2019’s #Connect2Earth campaign objective.
• Ideas for celebrating and contributing to Earth Hour 2019.

At the very least, please remember to switch off your lights and appliances on 30 March. Have a lantern-lit dinner party with friends or a games night by candlelight. Let’s make a collective effort to go beyond the hour and keep our electrical appliances off for as long as we can on the day and throughout the year.

Earth Hour Adventure dash at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens

You, your family or friends can navigate your way across a 5km course by using headlamps to designated checkpoints at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. Afterwards, you can picnic in the gardens and enjoy some entertainment during Earth Hour (8:30 pm to 9:30 pm). Tickets are R180 for adults and R100 per child and can be purchased at Quicket.

What is Earth Hour?

Use your power this Earth Hour