Turn your lights off for Earth Hour tomorrow!

Earth Hour is happening at 8.30pm on Saturday 22 March 2025, which is a global event that takes place every year to encourage people to turn off their lights for 60 minutes to raise awareness about big issues affecting the environment.

The night will also see some of the world's famous buildings plunged into darkness for one hour, including:

• the London Eye;
• Buckingham Palace and the Palace of Westminister in London;
• the Liver Building in Liverpool; and
• Stirling Castle.

Earth Hour

Earth Hour was started by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) back in 2007, to highlight the importance of tackling climate change and protecting nature.

On 31 March 2007, more than 2.2 million people and 2,000 businesses in Sydney, switched off their lights for one hour, which marked the beginning of the movement.

Here are some interesting facts about Earth Hour:

• it is one of the world's biggest environmental movements;
• it focuses on local and global communities uniting and switching off to show they care about the future of the the planet;
• Spider-Man was the first superhero to become a global ambassador for Earth Hour in 2014;
• in 2015, Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti joined the Earth Hour movement from space.

Today more than 190 countries take part in switch-off events and activities to show their support for the natural world around them.

Switching off for Earth Hour can help save the planet, by:

• being a symbol of hope for nature and climate change;
• bringing local and global communities together;
• inspiring people to make small, positive changes;
• allowing voices to grow louder to introduce and push for major legislative changes for the environment; and
• supporting the next generation to care for and protect our planet.

As well as encouraging people to switch off their lights, Earth Hour has made a real difference across the globe, including:

• establishing a 2,700-hectare protected forest in Uganda;
• supporting a Senate bill for 3.4 million hectares of protected marine area in Argentina;
• installing solar-powered lights in three villages without electricity in India;
• launching education programmes for schools in Thailand and Taiwan;
• recognising the support of 250,000 people in Russia for better protection of its sea and forests;
• building public support in Paraguay to extend a logging moratorium, helping reduce deforestation.

How to get involved

You can get involved with Earth Hour by switching off the lights in your home for one hour on the day.

There are also other ways to get involved either at home or your local community:

• spend time outside and enjoy nature, or give stargazing a go;
• switch off your electrical devices in your home for an hour;
• stay offline and try some mindful activities;
• chat to others taking part in Earth Hour on social media to help further raise awareness, using the hashtag #BiggestHourForEarth;
• have a candlelit dinner and try more energy efficient ways to cook your meal;
• think about your energy use and what you could change.