Egypt participated in the global initiative to switch off the lights celebrating "Earth Hour" on 25 March from 8.30 to 9.30 pm, where a number of citizens, and tourist destinations participated and turned off the lights and unnecessary electrical appliances for an hour. The theme of this year's Earth Hour is "Nature's time has come". Candles were lit in order to attract everyone's attention to the danger of the excessive consumption of energy and its negative effects on the planet as one of the causes of climate change. Egypt's Minister of Environment Yasmine Fouad; said that the initiative came this year under the slogan "Nature's time has come," and it is an annual global event organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Egypt began to celebrate Earth Hour in 2009 joining 88 countries, 4000 cities and 929 famous landmarks around the world whose lights have been turned off. Fouad explained that her ministry has coordinated with other ministries and governorates to participate in this event by turning off the lights of a number of important tourist attractions, such as the Citadel of Salah al-Din, the Sultan Qalawun in Al-Muizz Street, the mosques of Sultan Hassan and Al-Rifa'i, the Palaces of Baron and Aisha Fahmy. Moreover, the external lighting of Qaitbay Citadel in Alexandria, Salah El-Din Castle in Taba, Youssef Kamal's Palace in Naga Hammadi, and the Sharm El-Sheikh Museum in South Sinai was also switched off. Additionally, the Cairo governorate has also reduced the lighting by 50% in the governorate general office, Abdeen Square and all public buildings and its affiliated bodies. The world first celebrated Earth Hour in 2007 in Sydney in Australia, and the initiative rapidly spread around the world and has been adopted by many countries and organisations.
