Millions in Sydney switch off lights for Earth Hour

Sydney: More than two million businesses and households turned off their lights for one hour in Sydney on Saturday to mark Earth Hour.

Australians held candle-lit beach parties, played poker by candle light, floated candles down rivers and dined by candle light during Earth Hour.

As many as 30 million people are tipped to switch off lights and televisions around the world to help fight climate change, organisers have said.

Suva in Fiji and Christchurch in New Zealand were the first two official participating cities to go dark in the Asia-Pacific.

This year, Earth Hour has gone global, with cities including Atlanta, San Francisco, Bangkok, Manila, Ottawa, Dublin, Vancouver, Montreal, Phoenix and Tel Aviv joining Sydney by switching off their lights.