FLICK THE SWITCH FOR EARTH HOUR 2010

Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Water, Simon Corbell, has encouraged Canberrans to again flick the switch and turn off lights for Earth Hour 2010.

Mr Corbell joined the General Manager Retail of ActewAGL, Ayesha Razzaq, and General Manager of The Canberra Times, Ken Nichols, to formally launch the ACT's participation in Earth Hour 2010.

"Canberra had the highest Earth Hour participation rate of any Australian capital city in 2008 and 2009 and this year we are going for the hat-trick," Mr Corbell said.

"Earth Hour 2010 takes place at 8.30pm on Saturday, 27 March and while we want as many people as possible to take part in this, we must also take heed of the theme for this year - Earth Hour, Every Hour.

"Turning off lights for one hour is an important symbolic gesture to help protect the world from the threats of climate change, but people need to adopt this habit more regularly both at home and in the workplace."

The ACT's participation in Earth Hour in the ACT is being driven by a steering committee being led by the ACT Government, ActewAGL and, The Canberra Times along with the ACT Property Council, Canberra CBD Limited, ACT and Region Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Canberra Business Council, Australian Hotels Association ACT and the ACT branch of the Restaurant and Catering Association of Australia.

Earth Hour, an initiative of the World Wildlife Fund, is this year promoting the need to address issues around sustainability, as well as climate change and carbon pollution.

"The Government is committed to the need to establish strategies to fight climate change and support sustainability, such as through our Draft Sustainable Energy Policy, Electricity Feed-in Tariff and the proposed solar power facility," Mr Corbell said.

"These holistic approaches are important, but equally as important are the grass roots level actions and Earth Hour is a significant way people can make an individual contribution to tackling climate change.

People are asked to show their support for Earth Hour by registering at http://www.earthhour.org.au/, which they can also do through the website of the Department of the Environment, Climate Change, Energy and Water at http://www.environment.act.gov.au/.

Media Contact:

Patrick Cronan
6205 0401
0432 758 224
patrick.cronan@act.gov.au