Earth Hour in Edinburgh

Earth Hour began in Sydney in 2007, when 2.2 million homes and businesses switched off their lights for one hour. In 2008 the message had grown into a global sustainability movement, with 50 million people switching off their lights. Global landmarks such as the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Rome's Colosseum, the Sydney Opera House and the Coca Cola billboard in Times Square all stood in darkness.

In 2009, Earth Hour moved to the next level, with buildings in thousands of cities and towns - including Edinburgh - switching off their lights as part of a global "vote for Planet Earth."

Sponsored by WWF, Earth Hour returns on the last Saturday of March in 2011, and as before anyone can participate simply by switching off the lights and powering down their energy.

This is the fourth Earth Hour Edinburgh has participated in with other cities powering down this year including Bangkok, Toyko Dubai, Las Vegas, London, Chicago, Moscow, Sydney, Lisbon, Dublin, Paris and Warsaw.

Edinburgh Castle and the Scottish Parliament building are among the world famous buildings which are expected to go dark for 60 minutes.

In 2010, 1551 landmark buildings went dark including London’s Nelson Column, Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Table Mountain in Cape Town, Sydney Opera House, the Eiffel Tower in Paris, CN Tower in Toronto, The Las Vegas Strip, and the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff.

Edinburgh City Council's Waverley Court HQ, the City Chambers, the Scott Monument, Edinburgh Castle rocks, Calton Hill monuments, Burns Monument, and St John's Church are among council buildings expected to switch off for Earth Hour.

In previous years, iconic Edinburgh landmark, the Forth Bridge, as well as Our Dynamic Earth, and the Scottish Scouts have joined in Earth Hour.

WWF, who are co-ordinating Earth Hour, hope the event will re-invigorate people and government in the drive to reduce carbon emissions, particularly after world leaders failed to reach a binding climate change deal at the Copenhagen summit in December.

Scotland currently has some of the toughest emissions targets in the world with Scotland's Climate Change Act.