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SYDNEY, Australia - Sydney's iconic Opera House and Harbour Bridge have gone black as the first major world city to turn off the lights in this year's Earth Hour.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Mark Baker

Combo picture of Sydney Harbor Bridge and Sydney Opera House illuminated by lights top, then seen with the lights turned off Saturday, March 29.

The lights on the Harbour Bridge turned off at 8 p.m. as part of a global campaign to raise awareness of climate change.

That was followed shortly by the Opera House and other landmarks in the city. Most businesses and homes were already dark, as Sydney residents embraced their second annual Earth Hour.

Lights dimmed and flickered out in New Zealand and Fiji as the two countries became the first to launch Earth Hour.

Hundreds of cities and towns in more than 35 nations promised to join them, organizers said.

In Christchurch, New Zealand, more than 100 businesses and thousands of homes were plunged into darkness, computers and televisions were switched off and dinners delayed for the hour from 8 to 9 p.m. Suva, Fiji, in the same time zone, also turned off its lights.

Auckland's Langham Hotel switched from electric lights to candles as it joined the effort to reduce the use of electricity, which creates greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

The campaign was later to spread through Asia, to Europe and then North America. Some 150 communities across Canada are expected to take part.

One of the last major cities to participate will be San Francisco - home to the soon-to-be dimmed Golden Gate Bridge.

"What's amazing is that it's transcending political boundaries and happening in places like China, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea," said Earth Hour executive director Andy Ridley. "It really seems to have resonated with anybody and everybody."

Organizers see the event as a way to encourage the world to conserve energy. While all lights in participating cities are unlikely to be cut, it is the symbolic darkening of monuments, businesses and individual homes they are most eagerly anticipating.

"Earth Hour is about everyone and every organization, from individuals to global companies, joining together to own a shared problem - climate change," Ridley said. "The real goal for me is the number of people who take part."

Earth Hour debuted last year in Sydney and a reported two million people and 2,000 businesses participated, organizers said. They said the result was a 10.2 per cent reduction in the city's greenhouse gas emissions for the hour.

"I hope participants take away the knowledge that everything you do, however small it is, counts," Ridley said.