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Jakartans largely ignore Earth Hour
Jakarta’s main thoroughfares, offices, public buildings and residences generally kept their electricity on, ignoring the call to switch off power between 8:30 p
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J
akarta’s main thoroughfares, offices, public buildings and residences generally kept their electricity on, ignoring the call to switch off power between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.
to mark global Earth Hour on Saturday night.
Despite expectations of increased participation from building managers and households for the 2010 Earth Hour, buildings and billboard lights along Jl. Sudirman and Jl. Thamrin remained brightly lit.
The landscape of the city was as bright as usual, with hotels, apartments, high-rise buildings, and houses of worship carrying on as usual.
Only a few buildings switched off their lights, including the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry building on Jl. Thamrin, the Indosat building and some city landmarks such as the Hotel Indonesia circle, Monas, City Hall and the Arjuna Wiwaha fountain.
Fitrian Ardiansyah, the director for climate and energy programs at the Indonesian branch of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), however, insisted that his organization recorded that around 300 buildings had participated in the annual event.
Last year 200 buildings in Jakarta’s golden triangle (Kuningan area in South Jakarta, and along Jl. Sudirman and Jl. Thamrin of Central Jakarta) and 200,000 people participated in the event.
In Jakarta, the peak of the event took place at the National Monument (Monas), attended by Australian Ambassador Bill Farmer, presidential climate change adviser Agus Purnomo, Jakarta Deputy Governor Prijanto and some representatives from neighboring countries.
Deputy Governor Prijanto said the 2010 Earth Hour had successfully saved 80 megawatts of electricity, 30 more megawatts than last year.
Other big cities that committed themselves to darkness for an hour, including Yogyakarta and Bandung, failed to live up to their electricity reduction targets on Saturday night.
