Earth Hour is an initiative of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in a bid to raise public awareness of climate change and energy efficiency,which was organised for the first time in 2007.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade launched the Earth Hour Campaign 2019 on March 10
Since then, Earth Hour has become the largest community event in the world, held annually in March with the participation of large numbers of people, social organisations and businesses. So far, about 7,000 cities in 172 countries and territories have responded to this event. In Vietnam, Earth Hour campaign was first held by the Ministry of Industry and Trade in 2009. Over the past 10 years, Earth Hour campaign in Vietnam has created a strong pervasive influence and a positive change in the world community regarding energy saving and environmental protection.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade has recently launched the Earth Hour Campaign 2019. The main event among the series of activities is turning off lights to respond to Earth Hour Campaign starting from 20:30 to 21:30 on March 30.
The campaign has entered the 11th consecutive year,which is also the time to mark a new phase of development. With the slogan "Save Energy, Save Earth", ambassadors of the campaign will convey deeper messages, thereby spreading the significance of the campaign to call on the community to actively respond to the campaign to protect our common roof. Earth Hour is not only focused on energy saving, but also aims to change behaviour towards a green lifestyle for a more beautiful world for each person and for future generations. With that meaning, Earth Hour is a symbol of connection, consensus, and actions of the community, businesses and the whole of society to carry out activities on energy saving, environmental protection and climate change adaptation.
This year's campaign calls on all individuals and organisations in Vietnam to participate in energy saving activities, with the simplest actionbeing toturn off unnecessary lights and electrical equipment for an hour of the Earth Hour event in addition to other actions to protect the environment and respond to climate change.
Only six provinces and cities in Vietnam joined the campaign at the time of connecting with the Global Earth Hour campaign in 2009. So far, this event has received the response of 63 provinces and cities nationwide, with the wide response of organisations and businesses, particularly local people.
Despite many efforts, Vietnam is one of the countries with the highest level of electricity and energy use on GDP compared to other countries in the region. The demand for electricity and energy increases by more than 10% per year, higher than the growth rate of GDP. In addition, energy costs in prices of final products are higher than countries of similar technological levels while proportion of electricityfrom renewable sources in total power capacity remains low. This fact greatly affects the efficiency of the economy, businesses and household economy in particular. Moreover, fossil fuel sources such as coal, oil and gas are running out while hydropower sources with large capacity have been basically exhausted. Therefore, a strategy to develop green energy is the solution to overcome the serious challenges of impoverished natural resources.
If we use electricity and energy more economically and efficiently, the efficiency of production and business will increase and the burden of electricity costs for each family will decrease. Energy production and use is the main cause of greenhouse gas emissions, which is also an important factor leading to climate change, seriously affecting people's lives and the Earth environment.
Thus, energy saving is important to improve the efficiency of life, the economy, and the Earth. From now on, ministries, agencies, business community, and people need to take strong actions and practical measures to join hands in protecting the green planet, the common roof of mankind.