Twice a year, roughly a third of the world moves its clocks. The other two thirds either never started, or tried it and stopped.
The stopping has accelerated, and it is worth watching, because the arguments are always the same and the outcomes are not.
Istanbul — Türkiye abolished daylight saving in 2016 and fixed the country permanently at UTC+3. The clocks are never adjusted now, seasonally or otherwise.
São Paulo — Brazil abolished it in 2019. The official reasoning was that the savings had quietly evaporated: air conditioning had replaced lighting as the thing the country switched on, and air conditioning does not care what the clock says.
Mexico City — Mexico abolished it in October 2022 after twenty-six years. The argument that finally won was not about energy. It was about children walking to school in the dark.
Honolulu — Hawaii walked out in the 1960s and never came back. At 21° north there is barely any seasonal daylight to save: the longest day of the year runs about 13 hours 26 minutes, the shortest about 10 hours 50 minutes.
Bogotá — Colombia never adopted it at all, for the simplest possible reason. Bogotá sits at 4.6° north. The longest day of the year is about 12 hours 10 minutes. The shortest is about 12 hours 6 minutes. There is nothing to save.
Karachi — Pakistan tried three times, in 2002, 2008 and 2009, each time during an acute power crisis. Each attempt was abandoned. It has not moved its clocks since.
Dhaka — Bangladesh tried once, in 2009, and produced the strangest ending in this collection. Daylight saving was meant to end on 30 September. After public complaint the government pushed the end date back to 31 December — so the country spent October, November and December on summer time, in winter. A 2010 repeat was cancelled nine days before it was due to start.
Moscow — Russia's history is the longest and the most tangled: decree time in 1930, actual daylight saving stacked on top of it in 1981, decree time abolished in 1991 and reinstated in 1992, year-round summer time in 2011, and permanent standard time since 2014.
Sydney — Australia never settled it nationally, because it is a state matter. Queensland voted no in a 1992 referendum. Western Australia has voted no four times. New South Wales voted yes in 1976 and has changed its clocks every year since.
Lisbon — Portugal's case is the most instructive, because Portugal is not against daylight saving. It still uses it. What Portugal rejected was Spain's arrangement: it moved to Central European Time twice, in 1966–76 and 1992–96, and reversed both times. Parents' associations killed the second attempt. Children were going to school in the dark and refusing to go to bed because it was still light.
Read those reasons together and a pattern appears. Almost nobody abolishes daylight saving because of energy calculations. They abolish it because of mornings, and because of children.