Egypt marks global Earth Hour

CAIRO – 24 March 2018: The Ministry of Environment has announced Egypt marking the global Earth Hour initiative on Saturday under the slogan “We pledge to preserve our planet”.

In a statement on Wednesday, Egypt’s environment minister Khaled Fahmy said all Egyptian tourist attractions, including the Giza Pyramids, Cairo Tower, and Bibliotheca Alexandrina will shut their lights off for 60 minutes starting at 8:30pm.

Earth Hour is a worldwide movement organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature; it is held annually encouraging individuals, communities, and businesses to turn off non-essential electric lights for one hour on a specific day towards the end of March.

A set of authorities, civil society organizations and individuals will take part at the initiative as well, in a bid to raise awareness regarding the initiative and its positive purposes.

Taking part in the initiative resembles commitment to the planet.

The tourism ministry called on all hotels, tourism establishments and others to participate in the initiative to promote “going green” and the use of renewable energy.

According to the Earth Hour 2017 report, Earth Hour started as a lights-off event in Sydney, Australia, in 2007. Since then, it has grown to engage more than 7,000 cities and towns across 187 countries and territories.