Welcome to the Earth Hour global community!

Imagine your day in a sprawling urban city powered by renewable energy, where all your modern luxuries and technology add nothing to your carbon footprint. Where cars, buses and trains are all powered by electricity provided from a grid, with energy sourced from a wind farm.

This is how we see clean and renewable energy playing a big part in building a sustainable future. We’re even optimistic about it being a reality with countries like China, the United States, Canada, Brazil and India already pushing forward as the top producers of renewable energy in the world. However, much more needs to be done.

According to U.N. Habitat, the world's cities emit almost 80% of global carbon dioxide. And in order to inspire change, several Earth Hour 2013 campaigns have already been built around the need for the world to decrease its reliance on fossil fuels (which have heavy carbon output), and transition towards clean and renewable energy.

Earth Hour Australia, for instance, is focusing on local action by asking Australians not just to switch off their lights Earth Hour, but to make the switch to renewable energy for good. In addition to getting 10,000 people pledge their support of renewable energy on their website, they’ve also come up with a Community Challenge, where five Australian towns or suburbs that have the most pledges in relation to their size will win a free solar power system (to be gifted to a local community organization). Suburbs like the City of Nedlands in Western Australia have already accepted the challenge.

Meanwhile in India, the Earth Hour team is trying to raise awareness on renewable energy as an upcoming and practical option for individuals, businesses and governments, to reduce their impact on the environment and adopt a clean and sustainable lifestyle.  As shared by  Earth Hour India, this comes with some urgency as India's oil and natural gas reserves expected to last for only another 20-25 years.

Similarly, WWF-UK wants Brits to create a greener future for the United Kingdom by supporting the switch to clean green renewable energy, with the hopes of getting political leaders to commit to a virtually carbon-free electricity system by 2030.

Besides being green, the real benefit of renewable energy is that it is almost immediately replenishable and inexhaustible, via kinetic and thermal energy from nature, or light/heat energy from the sun – core renewable energy sources include solar, wind power, geothermal energy and hydroelectricity.

Lights out may be the main event during Earth Hour, but real environmental outcomes are still what we hope for. Currently, about 16% of global final energy consumption comes from these renewable resources and we want that number to grow.

Commit to a greener tomorrow, switch to renewable energy!