Johannesburg – South Africans took action against climate change on Saturday evening when they switched off their lights for Earth Hour from 8.30pm to 9.30pm, saving an average of 420MW of electricity during the hour, Eskom said.
"This is enough to power a city the size of Polokwane or Port Elizabeth for an hour," Eskom said in a statement on Sunday. As part of its support for the Earth Hour campaign, Eskom measured the reduction in electricity used during the hour against typical consumption for this time on an average Saturday evening.
"Eskom would like to encourage people to take action on climate change beyond this one hour and to make environmental conservation part of their daily lifestyles."
Earth Hour, which started in Sydney, Australia, in 2007, is organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) as a lights-off event to raise awareness about climate change.
Currently, more than 162 countries and territories worldwide are part of this initiative, which engages a massive mainstream community on a broad range of environmental issues.