Activities of the Earth Hour 2021 campaign worldwide are mostly carried out online due to complication of the Covid-19 pandemic, promoting joint efforts to ease burden on the natural medium.

This year’s campaign with the theme “Speak up for nature” will take place in Vietnam on March 27 evening to raise public awareness of the relationship between humans and nature and the causes of pandemics, especially Covid-19.

The event, jointly organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, aims at promoting initiatives on community building, sustainable economic development and integration with nature, protecting biodiversity, and effectively responding to climate change.

The '60+ message' was sent out to emphasize Earth Hour is not just for 60 minutes. Photo: Giang Huy

The campaign in Vietnam this year will focus on communications activities via social networks, fully taking advantage of cutting edge digital technologies.

Participants in the campaign are asked to sign up for suitable actions in their neighborhoods to protect the environment and perform them. Feasible and innovative actions will be posted publicly on the Facebook page of the organization board. Some 80,000 people have registered for this activity.

The main activity, Light Out, will be held from from 8:30pm to 9:30pm on March 27 nationwide. Agencies, organizations, and individuals are encouraged to “turn off lights and unnecessary electrical equipment” at that time.

The initiative began in Australia in 2007 as a grass roots gesture by the WWF against man-made carbon dioxide emissions linked to a warming planet.

It is described as the world’s largest social event for the environment, which has been observed by around 7,000 cities in 172 countries and territories so far.

Vietnam has participated in Earth Hour since 2009, representing the country’s commitment to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 8% by 2030 under the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Van Ngoc Thinh, country director of WWF-Vietnam said that from growing the movement of Earth Hour to telling the world about it, WWF’s dedicated communications corporate partners have played a major role in making every Earth Hour campaign bigger and better than the previous one.

From the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Minister Tran Tuan Anh emphasized the Vietnamese government’s efforts in building a green economy for a sustainable environment. He also urged organizations, individuals, families and businesses to save energy by simply turning off lights and other non-essential electrical devices.