Bangkok was plunged into darkness last night in a bid to raise awareness of climate change. At 7pm local time, residents and shopkeepers across six of the Thai capital’s districts switched off their lights for 15 minutes. Glitzy window displays and towering neon billboards were powered down while shoppers applauded the enterprise.
Bangkok currently produces 26 million tonnes of CO2 every year, which adds up to 20% of the entire nation’s emissions. City officials estimate that if just two million of the city’s 12 million residents switched off their lights then 4,800 tonnes of CO2 emissions would have been saved from entering the atmosphere.
“This is not only about saving energy for this night,'’ said Bangkok Governor Apirak Kosayothin before kicking off the scheme at the city’s most salubrious shopping mall, Central World Plazza. “It will raise continued awareness about energy conservation and I would like to encourage people to do it everyday.'’
Although the initiative was not enforced, police officers took to the streets to remind storeowners to switch off their lights.
The increased police presence was also deployed to reassure those who had expressed fears of looting and terrorist attacks – especially in light of the fatal bombings that befell the city over Christmas.
The success of last night’s event mirrored similar campaigns that took place recently across Sydney, Paris, Rome and Athens.
Earlier this month Bangkok hosted a week-long conference to finalise the third report of the year from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
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