Observing Earth Hour 2025

On 22 March, from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m., millions around the world will observe Earth Hour. This is a time to pause and reflect on humanity’s relationship with nature. Each of the past ten years were individually the ten warmest years on record. The string of record-shattering temperatures should serve as a warning that current pathways in the pursuit of socio-economic progress are not viable. Climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution and waste share a common root: unsustainable production and consumption. Transformative change is urgently needed. 

As a member of the United Nations family, the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is firmly committed to “Greening the Blue”. The premises of the Secretariat in Montreal offer smart energy-saving systems that dim non-essential lights in public areas. For Earth hour, the Secretariat will also pause all activities on social media in a bid to raise awareness of the world’s growing digital footprint. 

The symbolic social media hiatus during Earth Hour is part of broader efforts to reduce the Secretariat’s technological footprint. Measures include reducing the use of physical datacenters and transitioning to energy-saving cloud computing solutions. Recognizing that technology is key to essential functions, including information, communication and knowledge management, the Secretariat is determined to use internet and data storage sparingly. An ongoing website-overhaul exercise includes, in addition to enhancing user experience, shedding obsolete pages and optimizing content storage. 

The Secretariat staff have also been invited to observe Earth Hour privately. In addition to switching off non-essential lights at home, many will consider pausing social media use for one hour. It is widely accepted that measures such as limiting time on social media, sending fewer e-mails (including the widely dreaded, often unnecessary reply-to-all) and purging non-essential content on cloud-based storage services contribute to reining in an ever-growing tech footprint. 

Since 2010 the number of internet users worldwide has doubled, and the global internet traffic has grown 12-fold. Despite progress in the use of renewable energy, data centers and servers that keep social media platforms and cloud computing running require large amounts of energy from sources that emit high volumes of greenhouse gases. Programmed obsolescence of electronic devices and the low percentage of recycling generate copious amounts of e-waste, exacting an additional toll on nature. 

When the observance of Earth Hour ends on 22 March at 9:31 p.m., the Secretariat’s awareness-raising efforts on social media will resume. Much remains to be done to highlight the centrality of biodiversity to human lives and planetary health and to advocate for a global surge of implementation of the Kunming- Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework—the world’s masterplan to halt and reverse biodiversity loss. Let every post and every byte count. 

More Information:

Climate Change and Biodiversity

Kunming- Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework