City of New Westminster - New Westminster is the latest city to join Earth Hour 2008, a conservation initiative that brings together people from all over the world to show their support for action on climate change. The City’s involvement received unanimous support from Council in a meeting earlier in the week.

“We’re proud to play a part in this initiative to draw attention to one of the greatest issues facing our planet,” said Councillor Jonathan Cote, Chair of the City’s Environment Committee. “By encouraging friends both here in New Westminster and around the world to get involved, we can help spread the message that now is the time to act on climate change.”

Earth Hour is coordinated by the World Wildlife Fund and was started in Sydney, Australia in 2007. Nearly 2.3 million Sydney residents and 2000 businesses turned off their lights for an hour, saving 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide – the equivalent of removing 50,000 cars from the road for one hour.

This year, Earth Hour has gone global and includes participation from cities around the world such as Chicago, Tel Aviv, Manila and Melbourne. Here in Canada, New Westminster joins Toronto, Montreal, Yellowknife and Vancouver, motivating and mobilizing community members to demonstrate their support for action on climate change. BC Hydro has also joined in and is encouraging residents, businesses and community organizations to come together to make Earth Hour 2008 a success.

To broaden support for this global initiative, the City of New Westminster has extended an invitation to sister cities Lijang, China, Moriguchi, Japan and Quezon, Philippines to join Earth Hour 2008. This invitation underscores our special relationship with these three great cities and our commitment to do our part to take action on climate change.

To sign-up for Earth Hour 2008, logon to wwf.ca/earthhour/ and commit to turn off your lights on March 29th at 8pm.