24th March 2011: The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Mr. Phil Hogan T.D., joined with Airtricity yesterday to urge people across Ireland to support Earth Hour 2011. The Minister was attending the Earth Hour 2011 launch in Merrion Square, Dublin, today (24 March 2011).
Earth Hour is a global initiative which aims to highlight the need for action to tackle the world’s environmental challenges, including climate change. Hundreds of millions of people in over 125 countries will show their support by turning off non-essential lights for one hour on Saturday 26 March.
Attending the launch with the Minister were representatives of Ireland’s energy industry including Jason Cooke, Head of Communications of Airtricity, Tony Lowes, Director of Friends of the Irish Environment (official organisers of Earth Hour in Ireland) and Duncan Stewart, environmentalist and Ireland's Earth Hour Ambassador for 2011.
The Minister hopes that Irish people will show their support by turning off lights and other non- essential electrical appliances between 8.30pm and 9:30pm on Saturday night. The Minister outlined his support saying, “Earth Hour is a powerful symbolic initiative which demonstrates worldwide concern for our environment and widespread support for positive action. We all need to work together - Governments, businesses and individuals - to protect and improve our environment. I am happy that Ireland is again joining this global effort to highlight environmental sustainability and I call on the public to show your support on Saturday night.”
Jason Cooke, Head of Communications, Airtricity, comments, “Airtricity is proud to support Earth Hour 2011. As Ireland’s greenest energy supplier we are committed to a world where energy is made better. Small changes in the way our customers consume their energy can make a big difference to Ireland’s CO2 emissions as well as to the size of our customers’ energy bills. However powerful symbolic initiatives such as Earth Hour challenges all of us to consider how we can become more sustainable people in everything that we do and make real and powerful behaviour changes to help protect our environment and our planet.”
