By: Galih Aji Prasongko

Cianjur, February 2018. Started as a symbolic campaign in Sydney (Australia) in 2007 and in Jakarta (Indonesia) in 2009, Earth Hour has grown into the world's largest grassroots movement for environmental issues focusing on climate change. Over a decade Earth Hour has successfully mobilized millions of people for climate action in 187 countries and territories. In Indonesia itself in 2017, Earth Hour was supported by 67 cities and driven by 1500 active volunteers and supported by 2 million supporters through digital activation.

For the next 3 years, globally Earth Hour will focus on achieving CBD Aichi Target 1 which states that by 2020, a public awareness of the value of biodiversity is built while taking action to preserve it with the main message #Connect2Earth. Through the same message in Indonesia, the focus of Earth Hour 2018-2020 is to make climate change and biodiversity a major issue, by mobilizing millions of young people in action to change lifestyles and responsible consumption patterns.

In order to prepare the plan for a decade of Earth Hour in Indonesia, on February 1-5, 2018, KUMBANG Earth Hour 2018 was held. KUMBANG Earth Hour is a moment of sharing, sparking the spirit of leadership, & increasing the capacity of active volunteers (also called Champions) of the Earth Hour campaign in Indonesia. KUMBANG Earth Hour aims to build a strong, strategic, and responsive community to environmental conditions in their respective cities. Each year, representatives from academia, community, mass media, corporations, government gather with active Earth Hour Indonesia volunteers aged 18-25 years old from various backgrounds to build each other to create a national campaign strategy.

KUMBANG EH 2018 located in Cianjur, West Java was attended by 49 people who were representatives from 29 cities representing Earth Hour communities, 5 cities representing Marine Buddies, 2 cities representing ESD programs. For approximately 4 days & 4 nights all participants were involved in discussions about implementation related to Earth Hour campaign activities that will be implemented from 2018-2020.

KUMBANG EH 2018 resulted in a key commitment of "Mobilizing the awareness of more than 2 million young people in action to change green lifestyles and responsible and sustainable consumption patterns in 2020", through 5 national action plans:

1. Encourage the action commitment of 9 campuses in 9 cities to implement the #beliyangbaik movement
2. Continuing the #sejutaaction movement while encouraging the creation of waste-free areas in 31 cities in Indonesia
3. Conducting mangrove planting programs at 10 points in Indonesia 3.
4. Initiated environmental programs in 310 schools throughout Indonesia 4.
5. Mobilizing 100 cities to support Earth Hour on March 24, 2018 5.

Through the action plan, it is expected to encourage various initiatives that are able to mobilize public participation for the achievement of conservation in the future.