Earth Hour Preparations: WWF-Myanmar To Organize Earth Hour Challenge 2020 In March

WWF-Myanmar will show the support for Earth Hour 2020 by initiating the first ever Earth Hour Challenge. A Press Briefing for the upcoming event was held in Yangon on Thursday.

Earth Hour is a worldwide movement organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The event is held annually encouraging individuals, communities, and businesses to turn off non-essential electric lights, for one hour, from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on a specific day in March, as a symbol of commitment to the planet. It was started as a lights-off event in Sydney, Australia, in 2007. Since then, it has grown to engage more than 188 countries and territories in 2019 to raise awareness for energy consumption and effects on the environment.

Country Director, WWF-Myanmar, Nick Cox said "The world is facing a triple challenge how to create a stable climate, how to ensure food security, and how to ensure the space for nature. So, we're using this Earth Hour which is one of the world's largest grass roots movements for the environment to talk about what can the business communities do to help solve this triple challenge. We all know that Myanmar is one of the most vulnerable country to the impacts of climate change, we know that wildlife population is declining, the rivers and the forest are threatening...So, we are calling on the business communities in Myanmar to accept the business for nature challenge to help find solutions to these problems..."

WWF once organized the Earth Hour in Myanmar in 2017. WWF is going to organize the Earth Hour 2020 event under the title of "the Earth Hour Challenge" to strengthen the businesses which value the nature.

Partnerships Director, WWF-Myanmar, May Moe Wah said “The Earth Hour Challenge asks businesses to propose an initiative which protects nature and connects employees to nature. For the businesses to participate in the Earth Hour Challenge, they can select their proposal under the 6 categories - forest, wildlife, water, energy, waste management and climate.” 

There will be 4 awards - Earth Hour Champion, Earth Hour: Brilliance, Earth Hour: Inspiration and Earth Hour: Encouragement. The award winners will also be supported with 6 months technical guidance to implement their initiative by WWF experts.