October 2007
A Bright Idea
British retailers are to begin phasing out traditional incandescent light bulbs at the beginning of next year, with a complete end to their sales by 2011.
Announced by Secretary of State for the Environment, Hillary Benn, these are the latest proposals to reduce Britain’s carbon footprint and may cut CO2 emissions by up to five million tonnes a year. This is the equivalent to the CO2 emissions of a typical 1GW coal fired power station.
The voluntary initiative has the "strong support of the lighting industry and the government" and is pre-emptive of a proposed EU-wide phase out. In the same vein as schemes formulated in Brazil, Venezuela and Australia, there are hopes that emissions reductions will go some way towards helping the UK meet its 2050 target of reducing emissions by 60%. Indeed, the environment secretary even went so far as to state the need to "now review whether we need a stronger target."
On the need to phase out the old bulbs, Mr Benn made clear that "we need to turn them off, for good. So our aim is for traditional 150W light bulbs to be phased out by January next year, 100W bulbs the year after, 40W the year after that and all high energy light bulbs by 2011."
However, falling short of Australia’s mandatory renunciation of the bulbs, Greenpeace have pointed out that "there’s nothing to stop smaller corner shops from stocking them." Trying to find a middle road between environmentalists and critics of a nanny state, A Defra spokesperson stated "we’re not dictating what consumers can and can’t do. All of these retailers have committed to this agreement. It’s a major agreement."
Currently, approximately 80% of bulbs sold in UK shops are non-energy efficient, even though fluorescent bulbs use up to 75% less energy and have a lifetime 12 times that of their counterparts. Most attractive of all to consumers is that fluorescent bulbs are able to reduce electricity bills by £9 per bulb – roughly £100 over its entire lifetime. Reportedly, lighting costs contribute 5-10% towards the typical electricity bill in the developed world, and more elsewhere, thus the scheme makes perfect economic sense.
Reiterating his commitment to environmental responsibility, Mr Benn stated that "Britain can either lead the world in a low carbon transformation of our economy… or we can be left behind. As individuals , we can either live more sustainability today, or in a few years’ time, face having to tell our grandchildren why, as a generation, we did not act while we still had some time."
Ridiculing his comments, the shadow environment secretary responded with "how many ministers does it take to change a light bulb?", claiming that this voluntary scheme was rehashed and insufficient.
Nonetheless, pressure to act on this most basic of issues as a stepping-stone to greater action is strong. Dr Matt Prescott, director of banthebulb.org, who leads a campaign to encourage greater energy efficiency made clear that energy efficiency begins at home: "ending the life of this inefficient and obsolete technology is not enough to prevent damaging climate change; but it is an easy first step, and one the world should not hesitate to take."
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