As part of this action, citizens, cities and businesses are encouraged to turn off the lights for one hour, as a sign of symbolic commitment to the environment.
To the sound of an acoustic concert by the group Quiron Quartet, the Grand-Place will therefore be plunged into darkness from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Saturday.
The STIB will reduce the lighting in 26 of its metro and pre-metro stations. The lights will not be completely extinguished there for security reasons. The brightness will correspond to a third of the normal intensity, which will save more than 700kWh, or more than two months of electricity consumption for a Brussels household.
Less than a week after the release of the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and seven years from the target set by COP15 to reverse biodiversity loss, WWF wanted to go a step further than in previous editions. Beyond the symbolic action, the association thus invites people to take part in the “Biggest Hour for Earth”, by getting involved in a concrete way for nature. Participants are, for example, invited to pick up waste in their neighborhood, write to their local elected officials to ask them to protect the environment more, or to learn about the loss of biodiversity.
The first edition of the Earth Hour was conducted in 2007 in Sydney. Some 2.2 million Australians then turned off their lights to show they were concerned about climate change.