Bangladesh to observe Earth Hour

By IANS,

Dhaka : The Bangladeshi government has decided to observe Earth Hour 2012 and it will urge the people not to use power during that time, an official said Thursday.

"We've decided to observe Earth Hour and ask the people not to use power during that hour," Xinhua quoted Towfiq-E-Elahi Chowdhury, Bangladeshi prime minister's energy advisor as saying at a press briefing.

Earth Hour 2012 will be held March 31, 2012 from 8.30 p.m. to 9.30 p.m. at the participating country's local time.

The Bangladesh government could save about 400 tonnes of liquid fuel and 1.6 million units of electricity if all people in the country observe Earth Hour, said the country's Power Development Board Chairman ASM Alamgir.

The country's Power Secretary Abul Kalam Azad said they have started to campaign for it and hope that it would be observed across Bangladesh.

Earth Hour is a worldwide event that is organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and is held on the last Saturday of March annually, encouraging households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights for one hour to raise awareness about the need to take action on climate change.

The concept of Earth Hour was conceived by the World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature and the Sydney Morning Herald in 2007, when 2.2 million residents of Sydney participated by turning off all non-essential lights.

Following Sydney's lead, many other cities around the world adopted the event in 2008.