14 DAY TRIAL // In a press release issued earlier today, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF, for short) announces that it has selected the finalists for its National Earth Hour Capital Awards.
This means that, out of the 163 cities from 14 participating countries that entered the Earth Hour City Challenge, the organization has chosen the 34 most likely to be honored as sustainability leaders.
On its website, the WWF details that a panel of judges will be in charge of closely analyzing the current ecological footprint of these 34 cities and their plans to further green up their ways over the years to come.
Eventually, a city in each of the countries taking part in the event will be presented with an award that acknowledges its commitment to promoting sustainability.
“Thirty-four finalists from 14 participating countries were selected from among the 163 entrants in this year’s Earth Hour City Challenge (EHCC),” the organization writes.
“An expert jury will now review the actions and commitments reported by these cities and ultimately identify one sustainability leader per country for the National Earth Hour Capital Awards,” it adds.
According to the press release on the matter at hand, the National Earth Hour Capital Awards will take place this coming March 27. The location chosen for this event is Vancouver, Canada.
In case anyone was wondering, the panel of judges that is now expected to assess just how sustainable each of the 34 finalists is will chiefly focus on efforts to promote the use of renewables and cut down on how much fossil fuel is burnt for energy on a yearly basis.
Measures taken to cut down on power use by improving energy efficiency will also be taken into consideration by the judges.
Commenting on the fairly impressive number of cities that entered the WWF's latest Earth Hour City Challenge, Carina Borgström-Hansson with the organization said that, “It’s very inspiring to see the increasing number of cities striving to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels and making great strides in the transition towards a renewable energy future.”
The 35 finalists and their home countries are listed below.
Belgium: Antwerp, Brussels Capital Region, Ghent Brazil: Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo Canada: Edmonton, North Vancouver, Surrey Colombia: Medellín, Monteria Denmark: Copenhagen Finland: Lappeenranta India: Cochin, Coimbatore, Hyderabad Indonesia: Semarang, Bogor Mexico: Mexico City, Municipality of Aguascalientes, Puebla South Africa: Cape Town, Durban South Korea: Seoul, Suwon Sweden: Eskilstuna, Stockholm, Växjö Thailand: Khunhan, Muangklang, Nongsamrong USA: Boulder, Chicago, Cleveland