Hundreds of millions of people all over the world participate in Earth Hour 2009

As the lights fade in Honolulu bringing to a close Earth Hour’s roll out across 25 time zones in over 4,000 cities and towns in 88 countries, hundreds of millions of people have “voted earth” in the world’s largest demonstration of public concern about climate change.

“Earth Hour 2009 was an incredible success,” said WWF International Director General James Leape. If you participated in Earth Hour, thank you, your participation made that success possible.

“Earth Hour signals a real desire from people all over the world for urgent action on climate change, and a mandate for the world’s leaders to secure a new deal in Copenhagen that defines an effective global response."

“Our work continues, because over the next eight months, the leaders of the world will be deciding how they step up to meet this challenge, and we need, together, to make sure they do the right thing.

Earth Hour Global Director, Andy Ridley, expressed his amazement at the unprecedented volume of support and participation in the lights out campaign.

“It is humbling to see the unbelievable reaction and solidarity shown by the millions of people voting earth with their light switches in the past 24 hours. The next task is to build on this amazing momentum and to make those votes count in Copenhagen,” said Mr Ridley.

To read more news about Earth Hour 2009 and to see photos and videos from all around the world please visit: www.EarthHour.org