Edmontonians joined as many as one billion people around the world Saturday evening and reduced the city's power consumption by more than five per cent during Earth Hour Saturday evening.

Landmarks around the world including the Pyramids of Giza, the Eiffel Tower and the CN Tower all sat in darkness from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. in their time zone.

In Edmonton all non-essential lights at City Hall, the Alberta Legislature and a number of downtown high rise buildings were turned off for the hour.

"It's important, even though it's a symbolic act, to build some awareness of the challenge of climate change and also to create some hope that with small acts that add up we can make a difference," said Edmonton city councillor Don Iveson. 

More than 285 Canadian cities and municipalities took part, with Toronto Hydro already reporting a whopping 15.1 per cent drop in electricity use in Toronto.

Epcor says Edmonton's power consumption dropped 5.19 per cent during Earth Hour, about five times higher than last year's drop. 

"Last year we did the same thing, we took that hour between 8:30 and 9:30, we compared it to the week prior and what we saw was a difference of about 1.5 per cent," said Epcor's Michelle St-Amand.

World Wildlife Fund-Canada conducted a pre-Earth Hour survey which indicated that 81 per cent of Canadians were planning to take part in Earth Hour. An estimated 2,500 Canadian businesses like Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, MacDonalds and Winners also participated.

"We've just watched millions of Canadians use their light switch to vote for action on climate change," said Gerald Butts, President and CEO, WWF-Canada. "That's a landslide. Clearly, Canadians support action on climate change and are anxious to see their country take a leading role in finding a solution."

Globally organizers had hoped 1,000 cities would participate, but almost 4,000 cities in 88 countries around the world took part.

Official numbers are still being tallied and will be posted on earthhourcanada.org as they come in.

Earth Hour began in Sydney, Australia in 2007 and has now become a global event in support of action of climate change.