Earth Hour in Copenhagen to conclude with Ban Ki-moon accepting People’s Orb
WHAT: Earth Hour Hopenhagen
WHO: U.S. actor Bradley Whitford, Danish actor Ken Vedsegaard, Chinese superstar Li Bingbing, pop vocalists Ida Corr and Simon Mathew, mayors from cities around the world and more.
WHERE: City Hall Square, Copenhagen
WHEN: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 – Official lights-out ceremony begins at 7 p.m.
The People’s Orb is a shimmering 20cm silver sphere with a 350 gigabyte hard drive that is loaded with global stories, voices and images calling for decisive action on climate change – including photos of Canadians from Earth Hour last March. This will be given to Ban Ki-moon at the culminating act of the Earth Hour ceremony in Copenhagen.
“The People’s Orb carries the hopes and dreams of hundreds of millions of people from all over the world — an urgent call for a global response to climate change,” said Jim Leape, Director-General of WWF International. “So, as heads of state gather in Copenhagen, it is fitting that Ban Ki-moon, who has been an eloquent champion for climate action, should carry the Orb into the final negotiations.
The Orb has traveled from Sydney, Australia carried by a succession of honorary custodians and arrived in Copenhagen aboard the Climate Express, a train which started its journey at the site of the last major climate treaty in Kyoto, Japan.
Earth Hour is a global lights out event led by WWF to show support for action on climate change. Last year, hundreds of millions of people in more than 4,000 cities and towns in 88 countries around the world participated. In 2009, more than 10 million Canadians participated.
Next year, Earth Hour will take place on March 27 at 8:30 p.m. and mark a critical point between the wrap up of the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen and the G8 Conference in Huntsville in July 2010.