Pacific / New Caledonia

New Caledonia plans one-hour time zone shift

14:37 pm on 27 August 2020

New Caledonia is to make a fresh attempt to change its time zone by one hour.

Photo: 123RF

A government proposal was submitted to Congress which will determine whether to add one hour in reference to the universal clock from 1 December.

Such a change would align New Caledonia with, among others, New Zealand.

The government wants to extend daylight into the early evening to contribute to saving electricity and boosting commercial and leisure activities.

In summer there is daylight from approximately 5:10am to 6:40 pm.

The change was proposed by the Southern province last year and endorsed by the Social Economic and Environmental Council.

Four bids to change New Caledonia's time zone in the latter part of the last century were unsuccessful.

New Caledonia briefly adopted daylight savings 40 years ago but then abandoned it.