Earth Hour 2008 Video

Earth Hour 2008

From WWF Newsletter:

At 8pm on the 29 March millions of people around the world will use the simple action of turning off the lights for one hour to deliver a powerful message about the need for action on global warming.

Mark your calendar and join WWF and our partners in the global "Earth Hour" movement by turning your lights off from 8-9 p.m. on March 29.

But there's much more to Earth Hour than the one-time event. Visit www.earthhour.org to see how you can make Earth Hour a part of your everyday life and find out ways to reduce your carbon dioxide emissions.

You can take a stand against the greatest threat our planet has ever faced. Join the Earth Hour movement now at www.earthhour.org

Where Will the Lights Go Off? Anyone can get involved and individuals around the world will be shutting the lights off in their homes and businesses. In addition, major participation is planned in 25 cities, on six continents, including Chicago, San Francisco, Copenhagen, Sydney, Manila, Tel Aviv, Bangkok, Dublin and Toronto. Find out more about what’s happening in these cities or get your town or local community involved.

Go to www.earthhour.org and sign up to create a bigger, better Earth Hour, and reduce your impact on climate change.

Thank you for switching your lights off and making a statement for planet Earth.

Sincerely,

James P. Leape
Director General
WWF International

Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD)

LEAD is an international non-profit organisation with a fast growing network of 1600 leaders in more than 80 countries. Our shared mission is to inspire leadership for a sustainable world. We do this by searching worldwide for outstanding people, developing their leadership potential through our innovative training programmes and working with them to mobilise others to make a real difference to the future of this planet.
Our LEAD offices across the world deliver training programmes that challenge traditional notions of leadership with progressive participatory techniques. Using LEAD's experiential learning approach, our participants learn through multi-stakeholder dialogue, systems thinking, and inclusive cross-cultural processes.
We train business executives, government officials, academics, NGO directors, activists, educationalists and media professionals. Our multi-lingual training team works with top-level experts and practitioners from around the world who focus on emerging issues relevant to leadership and sustainable development.

UNFCCC - United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Over a decade ago, most countries joined an international treaty -- the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) -- to begin to consider what can be done to reduce global warming and to cope with whatever temperature increases are inevitable. Recently, a number of nations have approved an addition to the treaty: the Kyoto Protocol, which has more powerful (and legally binding) measures. The UNFCCC secretariat supports all institutions involved in the climate change process, particularly the COP, the subsidiary bodies and their Bureau.
This section contains numerous resources -- for beginners or experts -- such as introductory and in-depth publications, the official UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol texts and a search engine to the UNFCCC library.

IUCN - World Conservation Union

IUCN is stand for The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Use of the name “World Conservation Union” began in 1990, but the full name and the acronym are often used together as many people still know the Union as IUCN.

The World Conservation Union was founded in October 1948 as the International Union for the Protection of Nature (or IUPN) following an international conference in Fontainebleau, France.
The organization changed its name to the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources in 1956. The World Conservation Union is the world’s largest and most important conservation network. The Union brings together 83 States, 110 government agencies, more than 800 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and some 10,000 scientists and experts from 181 countries in a unique worldwide partnership.

The Union’s mission is to influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and ecologically sustainable.

The World Conservation Union is a multicultural, multilingual organization with 1100 staff located in 40 countries. Its headquarters are in Gland, Switzerland.

NGOs and Environmental Policy

As informed and effective advocates, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have had a role in shaping the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and its agenda from the beginning. Today, participation by NGOs, both local and international, is crucial, not only at the project level but also in GEF policy dimensions. Village organizations and other community-based groups, academic institutions, and foundations are among the NGO partners integral to GEF's efforts.
More than 150 GEF-financed projects are executed or co-executed by, or contain contracts or subcontracts to, nongovernmental groups. More than 60 regional and global NGO networks are involved in the design and implementation of GEF-funded transboundary waters projects. GEF's Small Grants Programme, administered by UNDP, has provided grants of up to $50,000 to finance more than 1,200 NGO-executed projects.

UN Publication

The UN have published the UN Chronicle magazine, which reach the volume XLIV. This volume (Number 2, 2007) have special issue on climate change, “Green Our World!”. It offers a snapshot of where the international community currently stands with regard to climate change. The special issue of the UN chronicle presents a range of perspectives in the form of articles and essays, written by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the Prime Ministers of New Zealand, Jamaica and Tuvalu, Ministers and high UN Officials.