Commenced in 2007 as a collaborative agreement between Sydney, Australia and the World Wildlife Fund, and since 2008 it has become a global movement, Earth Hour offers the opportunity for a global environmental action to voice our collective concern about climate change. At 8:30 pm last Saturday, March 28th, 2009, cities and towns, communities, businesses and individuals within Belize joined others across the world in turning off electric lights for one hour – Earth Hour – sending a powerful message to world leaders that we need to secure pertinent policies to combat the impacts of climate change.

This year marked the first year that Belize and other countries within the wider Central American region have participated in Earth Hour. Significant on-the-ground campaign efforts were carried out to try to secure a groundswell of public support. In Belize, a total of 9 municipalities were targeted. People were asked to turn off their lights within home and business for one hour in support of Earth Hour.

Candlelight walks, campfires and a gala dinner were the public events Belizeans held all over the country. In Belize City, close to 500 actively participated in the walk, campfire or gala dinner, in San Pedro Town 800 Belizeans took part in the walk or campfire. Belmopan had a torch run and Corozal had candlelight walk. The people of Glovers Reef Atoll actively participated in the nationwide response to Earth Hour and a number of homes and businesses within the municipalities took off their lights.

The First Lady of Belize, Mrs. Kim Barrow, made a public plea for Belizeans to participate in Earth Hour, and herself and other members of the Lifeline Foundation, and their guests showed their support by turning off lights at their black and white gala event held at the Belize City House of Culture on Saturday night. There were approximately 300 guests in attendance.

At the Gala dinner, as lights were to switch off, Mrs. Laura Esquivel, counselor at the Belize City Council said, “Earth Hour is a global environmental action to voice our collective concern about climate change and to show world leaders we are serious about securing pertinent policies to combat the impacts of climate change”.

Mrs. Kim Barrow commented on how happy she was to have been part of Earth Hour and having brought Earth Hour to all Belizean government authorities, “I was so happy to be part of Earth Hour, it turned out to be fantastic, we lit torches and glow sticks at the Gala dinner and everyone was excited to be part of this global event”, said Mrs. Barrow.

The World Wildlife Fund and collaborators are in the process of summarizing the estimation in terms of participation in Belize and around the world in the more than 4,000 cities and towns in 88 countries that participated in the largest environmental event the world has seen.

Earth Hour calls for firm commitments to combat climate change, which are vital to the future of our planet and to the present and future generations to come. The World Wildlife Fund is fully committed to highlighting the global citizen participation in Vote Earth as the world gets ready for Copenhagen 2009.

Nadia Bood, WWF’s Climate Change program officer, commented on how proud and excited Belizean’s Earth Hour participation made her feel. “Earth Hour 2009 is the cornerstone of WWF’s Climate Change advocacy campaign in Belize and it was fantastic to see youth, university students, not for profits, government authorities, neighbors, and many others joining Earth Hour in every corner of Belize!”, said Bood.