On Saturday 26 March 2011 from 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm, more than 5'000 cities around the world will ask their population to turn off the lights for one hour to encourage awareness of global warming. Yverdon-les-Bains will join this action, initiated in 2007 by the city of Sydney, by switching off the lights in public buildings and Pestalozzi Square for one hour and suggesting that their inhabitants participate as well.
Launched in 2007 by Sydney, this local initiative is meeting with growing success: 25 cities in 2008, more than 1,500 in 2009 worldwide, 5,000 this year, from Fiji to Norway, from Kazakhstan to Chile.
In addition to turning off the lights in public buildings for one hour, cities are asking for the contribution of employees in their administration by inviting them to take small, exemplary measures such as those recommended by the Earth Hour initiative for businesses: ensure that all domestic lighting and non-essential appliances, in particular advertising lighting, shop windows or electronic devices on standby (computers), are turned off completely.
On a global scale, the Earth Hour initiative is organized by the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) and various interested municipalities. It proposes that cities and populations take simple measures to reduce CO2 emissions and thus combat global warming. Everyone is invited to participate by switching off some of their domestic lighting and appliances they can do without.
Yverdon-les-Bains has decided to join this international campaign once again by switching off the lighting in its monuments and public buildings and in Pestalozzi Square on Saturday 26 March from 8.30 pm to 9.30 pm. The population is warmly invited to join this action.