While WWF projects and individual actions under the Earth Hour movement continue throughout the year, the annual Earth Hour lights out event is held worldwide toward the end of March to encourage individuals, households, communities and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights for one hour as a symbol for their commitment to the planet.

The first Earth Hour event was held on 31 March 2007. WWF-Australia inspired Sydney-siders to show their support for climate action. More than 2.2 million individuals and 2,000 businesses turned their lights out for one hour in the first Earth Hour event.

For the past 10 years, people around the world have come together every Earth Hour to support efforts to tackle climate change. And, together, we have created a powerful movement that helped deliver strong global commitments to tackling this threat. Climate change remains a big challenge for us all.

But another urgent threat now demands our attention: the staggering loss of biodiversity and nature. Earth Hour today endeavors to spark global conversations on protecting nature not only because it is our strongest ally against to the climate crisis -  but also because of its importance in ensuring our own health, happiness, prosperity and even survival.

The second-to-last and last weekend of March is around the time of the Spring and Autumn equinoxes in the northern and southern hemispheres respectively, which allows for near coincidental sunset times in both hemispheres, thereby ensuring the greatest visual impact for a global ‘lights out’ event. 

The standard Earth Hour '60' logo represents the 60 minutes of Earth Hour where we focus on the impact we are having on our planet and take positive action to address the environmental issues we face. For Earth Hour 2011, the ‘60+’ logo was introduced representing a commitment to add to Earth Hour a positive act for the planet that goes beyond the hour. Take up the ‘plus’ and get involved with the movement beyond the hour.

Earth Hour is a campaign for anyone and everyone who wants to help make our planet – and our future - better.

Absolutely. In fact, the success of Earth Hour would not be possible without the support of other NGOs and NFPs. Global organizations such as the World Organization of the Scout Movement and the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts have been pivotal in spreading the Earth Hour message, while in some countries where there is no WWF presence, Earth Hour campaigns are orchestrated entirely by other NGOs and NFPs.

Earth Hour came from a think tank initiated by Earth Hour Co-Founder, Andy Ridley, resulting in the formation of a partnership between WWF-Australia, Leo Burnett and Fairfax Media to address the climate change issue.

In 2007, there was still a degree of skepticism and denial on the issue of climate change. Earth Hour came as the inspiration to rally people to the reality of climate change and start a dialogue about what we as individuals can do to help address the planet’s biggest environmental challenge yet. Leo Burnett partnered with WWF to promote the idea and help make the campaign a reality in Sydney, a campaign which has now gone beyond Australia and climate change to symbolize the growing global pursuit of a better, sustainable future for all.

Earth Hour only asks people to turn off any non-essential lights for one hour - not lights that affect public safety. Earth Hour is also a celebration of the planet so It is important to enjoy the moment in a safe environment.

A record-breaking 188 countries and territories took part in Earth Hour 2018, with about 17,900 participating landmarks. Millions of people switched their lights off for an hour, and the Earth Hour 2018 campaign saw #EarthHour and #Connect2Earth trend on Twitter in 33 countries!

WWF’s Earth Hour secures millions of dollars of free advertising space with the help of partners such as Starcom, Discovery Networks International and many others. Earth Hour’s advice to teams around the world running local campaigns is to only seek either pro-bono or if absolutely necessary, low-bono advertising space.

Earth hour does not claim that the event is an energy or carbon reduction exercise - it is a symbolic action. Therefore, we do not engage in the measurement of energy or carbon reduction levels. Earth Hour is an initiative to encourage individuals, businesses and governments around the world to take accountability for their ecological footprint and engage in dialogue and resource exchange that provides real solutions to our environmental challenges. Participation in Earth Hour symbolizes a commitment to change beyond the hour.