Sta. Rosa City named PH’s ‘earth hour capital’

With various initiatives in making the city greener, Sta. Rosa in Laguna has been named the Philippines’ “National Earth Hour capital” by the World Wide Fund for Nature’s (WWF) Earth Hour City Challenge.

WWF said Sta. Rosa will be recognized along with Paris, the 2016 Global Earth Hour capital, this October in Quito, Ecuador.

The Earth Hour City Challenge is an annual yearlong initiative “designed to mobilize action and support cities in the global transition towards a climate friendly and one-planet future by stimulating the development and dissemination of best practices for climate mitigation and adaptation.”

San Carlos in Negros Occidental and Makati City also emerged as finalists in the “Earth Hour City Challenge,” which will be recognized with Sta. Rosa on Aug. 12 in Manila.

“Sta. Rosa City in Laguna has initiatives ranging from the erection of solar street lights to the construction of a composting facility designed to minimize landfill waste,” WWF said in a statement.

San Carlos was lauded as an “emerging renewable energy hub of Asia” for hosting two solar parks, a bioethanol, and a biomass powerplant, while Makati was recognized for its efforts promoting urban design projects designed “not just to be eco-friendly, but to promote the respective cultural identity of each barangay.”

Aside from Sta. Rosa, San Carlos, and Makati, other Philippine cities that joined the 2015 to 2016 challenge were Cagayan de Oro, Naga, Parañaque, and Quezon City.

Sta. Rosa, San Carlos, and Makati also placed fifth, fourth, and 19^th, respectively in WWF’s “We Love Cities Campaign,” a related social media contest won by Bogor, Indonesia.