Earth Hour 2023: Switch off! Give an Hour for Earth

At exactly 8:30 P.M local time on March 25th, as landmarks and families around the world join in on Earth Hour's iconic lights-out, let us set aside our everyday concerns and routines to reflect on the opportunities that can help to restore our shared habitat on planet Earth. We can dedicate our time to cleaning up the beach, planting trees, cooking dinners with sustainable ingredients, or joining friends in an Earth Hour event; Anyone of us can take part in this grand task from anywhere on Earth.

The support from millions of people across over 190 countries and territories around the world will create a brand new Earth Hour as well as raise awareness regarding the dual catastrophe that our planet currently faces: biodiversity loss and climate change. On the other hand, Earth Hour also acts as a powerful reminder of the importance of protecting and restoring the planet's health during this critical period.

Earth Hour 2023 follows immediately after the Kunming-Montreal Pact, which was signed in December 2022. Accordingly, many countries around the world have pledged to cooperate and restore natural ecosystems by the year 2030.

Global efforts in following seven years will be crucial for limiting the increase in global temperature to a maximum of 1.5°C by 2100. If the global temperature rises above 1.5°C, natural ecosystems around the world will face with severe and irreversible degradation; climate change will have extremely dire consequences on the planet.

Therefore, it is more important than ever for Earth Hour to call on communities around the world to pay more attention to Earth's issues, inspiring countries, cities, businesses, communities, individuals to act together in global solidarity for at least 60 minutes, in support and honor of our planet.

As a country heavily affected by climate change, Vietnam is making constant efforts to innovate and restructure, gradually shifting towards a green growth economy with emphasis on sustainable energy security, and bringing net emissions to “zero” by 2050. This is demonstrated by the increased GHG emission reduction targets proposed in the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) 2022 and its accompanying activities.

Earth Hour 2023 calls on people, businesses and organizations to respond to the movement with practical actions, contributing to the government's achievement of the aforementioned goal. This movement encourages many helpful actions including: using electricity economically and efficiently, using renewable and sustainable energy, etc.

Ms. Pham Cam Nhung, Climate and Energy Program Manager, WWF-Vietnam shared: "Earth Hour is a time when you can join hands to act for the country's sustainable development goals. Just 1 hour of practical action for our common home, spreading the sense of protecting and restoring nature to create a better future."

Earth Hour is an initiative deployed by the WWF with support from Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment since the very first days of its inception. Only six cities participated in the movement during the first year of 2009. This figure has since risen to 63 provinces and cities across the country, all of whom have considered Earth Hour as an opportunity to carry out meaningful and environmentally-aware activities.

In an effort to contribute to the goal of bringing net emissions to “zero”, WWF has conducted the report on “Vietnam Energy Sector – A vision towards 100% renewable energy by 2050”. The study proposes a road map in which Vietnam will develop towards a 100% renewable energy future. Hopefully, this will be a useful reference for policymakers and stakeholders in moving towards a sustainable energy future.

About Earth Hour

Earth Hour is an annual international event, founded by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to call on people to take practical actions in protecting the environment by switching of their lights and wasteful electrical appliances within One Hour (from 20:30 to 21:30 local time) on the last Saturday of March every year.

The movement originally started out as an iconic light-out event in Sydney, Australia in 2007. Earth Hour has grown to become the world's largest environmental movement. During its early years, Earth Hour focused on the climate crisis, but more recently, the movement has turned people's attention towards natural loss and degradation.

Earth Hour highlights the role of individuals in creating solutions to the planet's most pressing environmental challenges, calling on the collective strength of the millions of people on Earth to create a bright future together.

WWF organized Earth Hour for the first time in Vietnam in 2009, with the companionship of the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. The movement initially received support from only 6 provinces. However, starting from 2012, Earth Hour has gathered the participation of all 63 provinces and cities as well as millions of individuals, businesses and organizations across Vietnam.