NEWS

We’re DEAT-ermined to back action on climate change, says Van Schalkwyk

March 18, 2009
The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT) has signed up for the World Wide Fund for Nature’s Earth Hour campaign and is urging all South Africans to switch off their lights on Saturday, March 28 from 8.30pm to 9.30pm.

Earth Hour, the global call for action on climate change, is anticipated to be one of the greatest mass actions the world has witnessed, with more than 740 cities in 75 countries already signed up to take part in the lights-out campaign.

Marthinus Van Schalkwyk, the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, says: “It’s crucial that climate change is recognised as an issue that affects not just nature, but humans, and especially the poor.”

“Earth Hour provides an excellent opportunity to raise awareness about the need to act on climate change, and importantly, the awareness that ordinary people can make a difference, not just lawmakers and industrialists.”

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Nobel laureate and advocate for social justice, is the global patron of Earth Hour. He regards climate change as the greatest human-induced crisis facing the world today.

Dr Morné du Plessis, CEO of WWF, says: “The millions of people who’ve responded to our call to action worldwide realise that turning off the lights for an hour won't save much electricity. The point of Earth Hour 2009 is to deliver a powerful message and an unprecedented global mandate for action on climate change.”

"2009 is a critical year for action on climate change, with the world's leaders meeting at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December to sign a new deal to supersede the Kyoto Protocol.”

Van Schalkwyk emphasised that a climate agreement in Copenhagen at the end of 2009, must balance climate and development imperatives, and adaptation and mitigation, and must be supported by adequate means of implementation. It must mobilise political will on the basis of a shared vision. It must balance the international adaptation and mitigation responses, it must balance climate stabilization and sustainable development, and it must address the means for developing countries to implement effective policies and measures.

“Part of this, is ensuring that leaders realise that people worldwide are expecting an effective agreement. We need people to physically sign up at www.earthhour.or.za so that we can go to Copenhagen with some idea of the amount of people who are responding to this call to action on climate change.”

Earth Hour began in Sydney, Australia in 2007 when two million people switched off their lights for one hour. A year later, more than 50 million people across the globe took part on the night of 29 March 2008. That number could reach a billion this year when the lights go off in more than 740 cities and millions of homes around the world, says WWF. South Africans are invited to sign up and pledge their support at www.earthhour.org.za

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