JAKARTA CITY TO LEAD OBSERVANCE OF 'EARTH HOUR 2010'

Jakarta, March 19 (ANTARA) - Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo has called on his counterparts in other provinces to participate in "Earth Hour 2010", a program conducted by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), by turning off electricity supplies for an hour.

"I have sent the official appeal letter to every provincial governor and city mayor in the country to participate in 'Earth Hour', I want every city to participate," Fauzi Bowo said here Friday.

He said he believed Jakarta could be a barometer for other cities in implementing Earth Hour on Saturday (March 27) by turning off every electrical device from 08.30 pm to 09.30 pm.

Governor Bowo said the biggest electricity consumers were the urban and industrial areas where citizens should not only turn off electricity for an hour but arouse people's awareness to save energy.

He said if 10 percent of Jakarta's population would participate in Earth Hour, some 300 megawatts of electricity would be saved. The one-hour stop in power generator operations would mean a reduction of 267 tons in carbon dioxide and oxygen emissions and a financial saving of up to Rp200 billion.

As a sign of Earth Hour participation the Jakarta government would turn off lights in five of the city's landmarks, namely the National Monument and the dancing water fountain, the Hotel Indonesia Roundabout, City Hall, the Youth statue, and the 'Arjuna Wiwaha' fountain.

"The city government has also issued a circular calling on high-rise building owners to support Earth Hour," the Jakarta governor's deputy for spatial planning and the environment, Ahmad Haryadi, said in a press conference on Earth Hour 2010 at the Hotel Shangri-La on Thursday.

The city government would also turn off outdoor advertising lights and public street lighting on the occasion of Earth Hour 2010.

The Climate and Energy Program Director of WWF-Indonesia, Fitrian Ardiansyah said four major Indonesian cities other than Jakarta would participate in the program, namely Surabaya, Yogyakarta, Bandung and Denpasar.

"The mayor of Yogyakarta has expressed his support and will order the turning off of lights on monuments that are the city's icon," he said.

Earth Hour is a program initiated by WWF to make individuals, businesses, governments and communities to turn off lights for one hour on Saturday (March 27) as a form of support for action against climate change.

The activity was first performed in Sydney in 2007, where two million people switched off their lights.

During Earth Hour 2008 more than 50 million people around the world took part, and Earth Hour 2009 was participated in by one billion people in 4,088 large and small cities in 88 countries as the largest public action on climate change.