Lights dim in BA City for Earth Hour

Several historical monuments and public buildings in Buenos Aires City and other cities in the country turned their lights out to show support for the environment in the Earth Hour.

The initiative of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) to turn out the lights for an hour has been applied by over 17 cities in Argentina.

In Taiwan, lights went out on the Taipei 101 skyscraper while residents in one area of the city spent the hour of darkness praying for victims of the Japanese disaster.

As for India, a message posted on Twitter said: "In India, thousands of villages experience Earth Hour each hour of the day."

In the Philippines, bells pealed in Catholic churches and fire engines and police cars sounded their sirens.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard lent her voice to Earth Hour by vowing that she and her government would go beyond the hour by "doing everything in my power to deliver a carbon price", a scheme to encourage companies to minimise emissions.

Australia, a leading coal exporter, accounts for about 1.5 percent of global emissions but is one of the highest per-capita polluters in the developed world due to a reliance on coal-fired power for 80 percent of domestic electricity.

Although Earth Hour kicked off in Fiji, organisers did not have it all their own way in the rugby-crazy country. Lights were switched off but not television, due to the Hong Kong Sevens tournament.

China, the world's top energy consumer and greenhouse gas emitter, turned off the lights at the Bird's Nest Stadium and other Beijing landmarks. Missing the point slightly, officials left lights running later than usual at one section of the Great Wall so they could be turned off at the allotted time.