The government is urging everyone to use as little electricity as possible tomorrow to mark Earth Hour, a global initiative to promote climate change by cutting energy consumption between 8.30 and 9.30 p.m.

The government will also play its part by switching off the lights along the aqueducts in Santa Venera, at Portes Des Bombes in Blata l-Bajda and at the War Memorial in Floriana.

The campaign began three years ago in Sydney but, last year, more than 380 towns and cities, 2,500 businesses in 35 countries and almost 30 million people switched off their lights. Lights at Sydney's Opera House and Harbour Bridge were switched off and Australians held candlelit beach parties, played poker and dined by candle light and floated candles down rivers.

In Britain, about 26 town and city councils switched off non-essential lights, as did several historic buildings, including Prince Charles's private residence, Highgrove House, London City Hall, Winchester Cathedral and even the government communication headquarters radio monitoring station.

And in the age of the internet, the UK's arm of search engine Google turned its homepage black ahead of time with the message: "We've turned the lights out. Now it's your turn".

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