Environmental protection: Turn off the lights for climate – Earth Hour around the world – news

In Germany, the WWF was expecting a record participation: it announced that 575 cities and municipalities and 448 companies in 716 locations wanted to participate. Nationwide, the lights have gone out in many town halls, churches, monuments, company headquarters and stadiums. For example, Neuschwanstein Castle, Cologne Cathedral, and Frankfurt Pulskirch remained in the dark, but so were industrial monuments such as the Duisburg nature park and football fields such as the arenas in Mönchengladbach and Schalke.

“With Earth Hour, millions of people around the world are showing that we must work harder against the climate crisis and for a living planet,” says Marco Vollmar, Head of Communication and Campaign at the WWF in Germany, Marco Vollmar. Earth Hour “to do our part and keep the pressure on governments.”

With the goal of future general elections and the federal government, the WWF has called for a dramatic increase in the pace of expansion of renewable energies. The proportion of clean energy from wind and solar should increase to 80% of total electricity consumption by 2030. In addition, all subsidies that harm the climate must be eliminated.

The WWF has announced Earth Hour for the fifteenth time. The first shot was fired once in the Australian city of Sydney, when about 2.2 million people turned the lights off on March 31, 2007 – thus making history. Due to the Corona pandemic, the environmental organization has abstained from public events with large audiences for the second year in a row.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210327-99-992258 / 5