IT is just propitious that Manila should lead this year’s Earth Hour observance. As the capital of the Philippines, and the city by which the nation is known all over the world, this urban enclave in the heart of Luzon should take the lead in environmental, cultural and economic events that have the most impact on the lives of all Filipinos, not just Manilans.
Tomorrow, March 23, Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna will play host to the public celebration of Earth Hour, starting at around 6 p.m. at the Kartilla ng Katipunan open plaza near City Hall. The mayor said there will be a short program explaining why the need for an Earth Hour celebration every year, along with entertainment numbers and remarks from other city officials and organizers from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Philippines.
Earth Hour is a global grassroots movement uniting people to take action on environmental issues and protect the planet by switching off lights for one hour. The annual switch-off event is an initiative of WWF which started as a lights-out event in Sydney, Australia, in 2007.
‘… many believe that this annual practice barely makes any dent in the nation’s actual power consumption.’
Since then, it has grown into a global grassroots movement, engaging millions of supporters in more than 185 countries and territories, inspiring individuals and organizations worldwide to take action for the environment, and driving major legislative changes by harnessing crowd power. The Philippines joined in 2008, making this year’s Earth Hour the 16th time the celebration is observed.
For the celebration near City Hall, the main celebrity guest will be SB19 leader Pablo, according to Earth Hour Philippines national director Angela Consuelo Ibay who said Pablo “represents the passion and resilience of Filipinos.”
Since the turning off of lights in households and business establishments for one hour is at best just a token gesture of support for energy conservation, many believe that this annual practice barely makes any dent in the nation’s actual power consumption. It thus surprised many when the Department of Energy released a report that the Philippines saved 62.69 megawatts (MW) during the Earth Hour 2023 held on March 29.
The DOE said the largest electricity savings during the one-hour switch-off were recorded in Luzon with 33.29 MW, followed by Mindanao with 20.5 MW, and the Visayas with 8.9 MW.
In the initiative, Filipinos were encouraged to turn their non-essential lights off for one hour starting 8:30 p.m. in a bid to mitigate the effects of climate change. The energy department said that the electricity demand reduction for this period was “a testament that collectively, we could generate a great impact on our daily energy consumption.”
The theme of this year’s celebration in Manila is “Switch off plastic pollution, give an hour for Earth.” Mayor Lacuna called on city residents to reduce the use of plastic bottles and food containers because these will usually end up clogging our waterways.
Lacuna noted that just last year, the city of Manila inaugurated its material recovery facility which is capable of receiving mixed waste for final sorting, recycling and processing. The city has also partnered with NGOs and the private sector for waste diversion projects, aside from incentivizing plastic collection in which market vendors and barangay residents earn money for participating in these anti-plastic pollution initiatives.
Other cities, we are sure, have their own programs and projects aligned with the national celebration of Earth Hour. We are happy that the country’s leading local government units are in the thick of ramping up environmental consciousness among the citizenry.
