During the "Earth Hour" campaign Saturday evening, the Bulgarian capital Sofia has saved 44 MGW of electric power, the power utility CEZ announced Sunday.

The 44 MGW equal the hourly consumption of 735 light bulbs.

Downtown Sofia went dark for one hour Saturday when many emblematic buildings turned their lights off. Many citizens also joined the campaign by turning the lights off inside their homes.

At least ten other cities across Bulgaria turned off the lights on their main buildings and streets in joining the Earth Hour initiative, which in 2011 was held on March 26 at 8:30 pm.

This was the country's fourth participation in the event, this time around under the patronage of Bulgaria's EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response, Bulgarian Kristalina Georgieva.

On Earth Hour people around the world switch off their lights and power appliances for 60 minutes as a symbolical global call to action for every individual, business and community throughout the world to save energy and help prevent the deterioration of the global climate.

The idea behind the campaign is for people to spend some time with friends in "peace and quiet" and reflect on "themselves and their lives", according to the environmental organization WWF.

Earth Hour originated in 2007 in Sydney, Australia, when 2,2 million homes and businesses turned their lights off for one hour to make their stand against climate change.

The Australian initiative proved highly popular around the world and a year later Earth Hour had become a global sustainability movement with more 50 million people across 35 countries joining in. 134 countries took part in 2011.

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!