Many urbanites in the capital city may not fancy doing activities in the dark, especially because they are accustomed to having abundant lights both at home and in the commercial areas.

However, on Saturday evening a number of institutions, companies and residents voluntarily turned their lights off for an hour from 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. to promote environmental projects in the annual Earth Hour.

Although this year'€™s Earth Hour in Jakarta might still be dominated by large events held in shopping centers and, with the participation of the city administration, in public spaces and buildings, some environmentally conscious residents had decided to enjoy a moment without lights.

South Jakarta'€™s Pancoran resident Raditya Permana even took more extreme measures. He said he managed to persuade his parents and siblings to celebrate Earth Hour by turning off the electricity at their house for one hour.

'€œI read about the event on news portals on the Internet. It is for a good cause, so I decided to participate. I told my family about the event and they agreed to participate too and turn off the electricity,'€ the 21-year-old man told The Jakarta Post, adding the event inspired him to start saving electricity.

For Kartika Vidyawati, a resident of Tebet in South Jakarta, participating in the annual Earth Hour has become her commitment. This year, too, she turned off her lights.

'€œI'€™m not a very '€˜green'€™ person, so this is the least I can do to help,'€ she said.

However, not all residents were aware of the event. Amanda Dwinanda, a 31-year-old resident of Klender in East Jakarta, said the Earth Hour event did not ring a bell. '€œI'€™m not participating. Maybe next year,'€ she said after learning about the event from the Post.

Initiated by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Earth Hour began in 2007 in Sydney, but the idea quickly spread around the world and hundreds of millions of people were estimated to have turned their lights off for the event last year.

This year, 172 countries, such as the Philippines, Madagascar, Brazil, China and the US, and more than 7,000 cities participated in the event. More than 1,200 landmarks and 40 UNESCO World Heritage Sites around the globe were also set to go dark during the Earth Hour.

Hong Kong'€™s iconic skyline dimmed and the sails on Sydney'€™s Opera House went dark Saturday as lights on many landmarks like the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Seattle Space Needle were switched off for the global climate change awareness campaign Earth Hour.

In neighboring Singapore, all Earth Hour events were cancelled because of the mourning mood following the death of the city-state'€™s founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, AFP reported.

Jakarta is only one of 30 cities across the archipelago committed to this year'€™s campaign.

The head of the Industry and Energy Agency, Haris Pindratno, said the Jakarta administration supported the event by switching off the lights in five iconic locations in the capital: the City Hall, the National Monument (Monas), the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle, the Arjuna Wiwaha statue fountain and on Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat and the Youth Statue at the Senayan traffic circle.

Governor Basuki '€œAhok'€ Tjahaja Purnama previously said he had also requested the agency to switch off street lights along main thoroughfares, including Jl. Sudirman and Jl. MH Thamrin in Central Jakarta, as well as Jl. Gatot Subroto and Jl. HR Rasuna Said in South Jakarta.

'€œWe will also turn off lights on our billboards across the city. We have also asked several building managements to turn off their lights during Earth Hour,'€ Ahok said.