Manila Mayor Honey Lacuna-Pangan announced the city's partnership with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Philippines to lead the Earth Hour Philippines 2024 at the Kartilya ng Katipunan in Ermita, Manila on March 23.
In preparation, the city government held the media launch at the Manila City Hall with the Department of Public Services-Manila and members of WWF-Philippines.
Earth Hour aims to create awareness and take responsibility for a sustainable future by turning the lights off for one hour on the last Saturday of March.
During Earth Hour, people from all over the world will turn off their lights starting at 8:30 p.m. in their local times.
Businesses and government organizations, as well as community and political leaders, will take part in the activity, to work together to create a sustainable low carbon future for planet earth.
By switching off, everyone is encouraged to dedicate an hour to help bring the world back to life, show symbolic support for the planet, and raise much-needed awareness of the environmental issues that affect it.
The mayor called on the Filipinos, especially Manileños, to switch off and give an hour for mother earth on Saturday.
In her speech, Lacuna-Pangan thanked the WWF Philippines for choosing Manila as the next venue for this year’s Earth Hour, with the theme “Switch off Plastic Pollution, Give an Hour for Earth”.
"The Philippines has been actively participating in the annual Earth Hour since 2009. And we in Manila feel very honored to be hosting this year’s Earth Hour on its 15th year celebration," she said.
She noted that the city also partnered with WWF Philippines in 2020 for the Plastic Smart Cities (PSC) Project which aims to achieve a 30 percent reduction of plastic waste leakage into the open environment by 2024, thus, contributing to the 100 percent reduction of plastic waste leakage in the City of Manila by 2030.
The project aims to focus on generating entrepreneurial solutions designed to accomplish the main objective of reducing plastic pollution in the city.
"In our own little way, we have been helping in cleaning up the waterways in our juridical area through our own small teams without any other goal but to pick up trash and clean the bay. We have dedicated teams meant to address three different waterfronts in the nation’s capital; Baseco Beach, Roxas Boulevard, and our esteros and creeks which lessens the chances of plastic wastes to eventually end up and float to the open sea. Furthermore, we are very proud to share that the City of Manila is the first city in the National Capital Region to adopt a City Plan of Action on Marine Litter (CPOA-ML) and localize the National Plan of Action on Marine Litter (NPOA-ML)," she said
She also cited the waste diversion and incentivized plastic waste collection projects that Manila had launched in partnership with private and non-government organizations to reduce the amount of plastics in the city's waterways and landfills.
"Let us always remember that Earth Hour is more than just how much energy is saved when we switch off our lights for one hour. This is more than that. This is about inspiring people to unite for our Mother Earth and stand against the destruction of the environment and climate change," she added.
As the country’s capital, the mayor assured the WWF of the city's support toward the common goal of protecting the environment and engaging other cities and Filipinos to do their part in saving the environment.