IN A noble bid to demonstrate not only to their fellow countrymen and women but also to the rest of the world that Brunei does ‘care’ about the environment, a group of private individuals and working professionals have come together in the hope of trying leave an indelible footprint in this year’s Earth Hour campaign.

Brunei joined the 60-minute energy-saving awareness campaign for the first time last year, during which some private institutions took the lead by switching off the lights in their establishments. Several strips of streetlights were also switched off by the Department of Electrical Services, between 8 and 9 pm on the Friday evening of March 28 last year, as their show of support for the initiative.

But this year, a growing number of globally conscious Bruneian citizens have officially registered Brunei’s firm commitment to participate in this growing movement to spread awareness and raise the profile on climate change.

Calling themselves the ‘Earth Hour Representative Team in Brunei’, some of the members, who still wished to remain anonymous, explained that they had made a hub call to Earth Hour Global on Monday afternoon to join the 17 countries that have already pledged their participation between 8 and 9pm, on Saturday evening, March 27.

As of last Monday, it was learnt that out of all the countries in the region, only Laos and Brunei has yet to commit to the global energy-awareness campaign. Laos soon confirmed their support, leaving Brunei undecided. Not wanting to leave their country in a lurch, these like-minded individuals took the initiative to jump on the Earth Hour bandwagon.

“We have to create more impact awareness,” one of the representatives explained. “We have been talking about it for far too long. It is already way past the time for us to act. We cannot just continue lecturing people about energy conservation. We have to do it in such a way where it can make a permanent impact on their lives. We have to make people think that as our natural resources are depleting, what are we doing to sustain it? What we are hoping to do is to make them aware that the energy they save today is for their children’s children of tomorrow. It’s not just for us to use in our lifetime.”

Earth Hour is an initiative of the World Wild Life Fund for Nature (WWF) that is aimed at raising awareness of climate change by providing an opportunity for organisations and individuals to think about their daily power consumption and impacts on the environment and to consider ongoing changes to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and improve their environmental performance.

According to some official statistics, Brunei was ranked sixth. in Carbon Dioxide emission per capita in 2004. The country also ranked third for having the largest number of passenger vehicles per 1,000-population ratio at almost 550. In addition, the United Nations Development Programme Annual Human Development Report listed Brunei to have a considerably high per capita consumption of energy in 2008, at 8,842 kilowatt-hours of electricity per person.

But despite these alarming statistics, a great opportunity for the country and its people to shine in last year’s event instead fizzled out due to low awareness and consideration for the campaign. A 19-year-old local student summarised it best when she said, “I would love to see the Brunei capital go dark for the event but other than an informed few I don’t think the average Bruneians either know or would want to switch off their lights.”

This year, instead of burning candles, Brunei’s Earth Hour Representative Team will be distributing chemiluminescent glow sticks to the participants, which, they informed the Bulletin now number around a thousand people.

Speaking to some government officials, they confirmed to the Bulletin that more pro-active participation will be made this year. For instance, an official notification letter has already been distributed to every government minsitry and department informing them of the upcoming event and, as the campaign is strictly on a voluntary basis, the commitment and participation can only come from the will of each respective party.

“We simply cannot go around switching off electricity,” explained one of the officials, adding, “But we would welcome initiatives and support from the public, say on a Mukim-wide level giving their consent to switch off their respective street lightings.”

Other energy stakeholders in the country have also acknowledged their participation. Brunei Shell Petroleum Sdn Bhd, for instance, will be participating with their own activities lined up for the evening. PetroleumBrunei said that they already do exercise energy-saving measures everyday and that it was part of their working culture to switch off computers, lights whenever they leave the office.

Last year, over 4,000 cities in 88 countries took part in the event, a jump from the figures cited for 2008. This year, the organisers of Earth Hour are hoping for the numbers to grow even bigger, which it undoubtedly would if more Bruneians switch off their carbon footprint for just one hour.

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