Consider the following statements regarding ‘Earth Hour’: (1). It is an initiative of UNEP and UNESCO. (2). It is a movement in which the participants switch off the lights for one hour on a certain day every year. (3). It is a movement to raise the awareness about the climate change and the need to save the planet. Which of the statements given above is / are correct?

Statements 2 and 3 are correct, so the answer is C. Earth Hour is a symbolic campaign in which participants switch off non-essential lights for one hour on a fixed day, usually the last Saturday of March. It was launched by WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) in Sydney in 2007, and its stated purpose is to raise awareness about climate change and the need to protect the planet.

Statement 1 is wrong. Earth Hour is a WWF initiative, not one run by UNEP or UNESCO. Aspirants who know that UN bodies run many environmental programmes tend to attach the UN label to this one.

Statement 2 is correct, since the core act is switching off lights for an hour. Statement 3 is correct because the campaign's aim is awareness, not energy saving as such.

Core concept: the role of NGOs and civil society in international environmental campaigns, as distinct from formal UN bodies and treaties. For Mains GS-III (environment and climate change), this connects to how non-state actors build public support for climate action alongside instruments like the Paris Agreement.

Trap: assuming every global environmental campaign must be a UN programme, and then dismissing statement 2 because the act sounds too simple to be a real movement.