Australians flicked off the equivalent of two million standard light globes during this year’s Earth Hour, according to the energy industry.
Data released to the City Journal by the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) shows national electricity demand dropped by 100 Megawatts during the annual movement on Saturday night, excluding the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
However compared to previous years, less people in Australia took part in reducing power use.
“In 2012, demand dropped by 152 Megawatts,” an AEMO spokesperson said.
As part of the international campaign, people are urged to turn off their lights for an hour to help save energy and symbolise worldwide concern over climate change.
Earth Hour 2013 was held on Saturday March 23, between 8:30pm - 9:30pm AEDT (Photo by 75joannas, Flickr)
Earth Hour spokesperson Hamish Wyatt said this year’s campaign took a different approach.
“The key place we saw a lot of participation was in the ‘Pledge to Switch’ campaign,” he said.
“We’ve currently had about 7000 Australians who’ve pledged to switch over to renewable energy.”
This year particular landmarks – including Melbourne’s Arts Centre – were illuminated in a green glow rather than plunged into darkness to encourage a consistent switch to renewable energy.
Mr Wyatt also pointed out a record number of countries were involved – along with unique landmarks such as the Kremlin and Red Square in Russia taking part for the first time.
Earth Hour participant Lisa Eadie believes the initiative cannot simply be measured in ‘black and white’ data.
“The numbers will fluctuate each year, but people’s attitudes toward energy sustainability are becoming more long term,” she said.
“On the night you see people all over the world uniting to face climate change, and that’s really the only way it’s ever going to be solved.”
Fierce debate surrounds the climate change issue in Australia today, with many in the community erupting in protest due to the introduction of the Federal Government’s carbon tax last year.
Surveys of Australian attitudes towards climate change by the CSIRO between 2010 and 2011, showed year-on-year less people believed the phenomenon was actually occurring.
However Mr Wyatt does not believe environmental politics in Australia and around the world has caused apathy towards Earth Hour.
“It’s an apolitical gesture in which people just show their support for the planet,” he said.
“I think that’s why it’s seen continued growing support because it’s stayed away from the nitty-gritty political debate”.
