Palace calls for reduced plastic use on Earth Hour observance

Panelo enjoined Filipinos to participate in the Earth Hour. (File Photo: Office of the Presidential Spokesperson/Facebook)

MANILA — Malacañang on Saturday called for Filipinos to cut down the use of plastics as the world celebrates Earth Hour, with this year’s theme focusing on the issue of single-use plastics.

“A United Nations report shows the Philippines as one of the top five contributors of plastic waste in the world’s oceans. We therefore call on everyone to cut down the rampant use of plastics as we continue to aspire for a clean, safe and healthy environment,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a statement.

Panelo enjoined Filipinos to participate in the Earth Hour.

“March 30 tonight, we will join the rest of the world in switching off our lights for Earth Hour,” he said.

Earth Hour 2019, with its campaign “#Connect2Earth”, aims to build mass awareness on why nature is important and create an unstoppable movement for nature similar to when the world came together to tackle climate change.

The Earth Hour, which started as a symbolic lights out event in Sydney in 2007, is now the world’s largest grassroots movement for the environment, inspiring millions of people to take action for our planet and nature.

Since then, it has grown to engage more than 180 countries and territories worldwide.

Conservation group World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Philippines will spearhead in Makati City the Philippines’ main 2019 Earth Hour celebration, which aims to further draw public support for legislation on plastic waste management to help address environmental degradation and biodiversity loss from plastics pollution.