Australia to Ban Incandescent Bulbs in 2010
Australia To Ban Incandescent Bulbs In 2010
Australia to ban sale of standard light bulbs replacing with CFL bulbs
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The Australian Federal Government have announced plans to restrict the sale of standard incandescent lightbulbs by 2010 - the first country in the world to do so. In addition all existing incandesent bulbs will be phased out over the course of the next few years and replaced with energy-saving Compact Fluorescent Lighting (CFL) - bulbs which have lifetimes 10 times those of incandescents and which use just one-quarter of the power.
Exceptions will be granted for the bulbs inside cookers, microwaves, and for some other special cases.
The new policy was announced on Tuesday 20th February 2007 by Australian Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull (pictured above) stating that "The most effective and immediate way we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions is by using energy more efficiently."
During the incandescent bulb phaseout period from 2008-2012 800,000 tonnes of carbon emissions will be removed, and by 2015 the annual cut in emissions will be four million tonnes. Lighting currently accounts for more than 10% of domestic greenhouse emissions and 25% of emissions from the commercial sector in Australia.
The reception to the news from Australian environmental groups has been luke-warm with many suggesting that increasing energy efficiency of Australian industry and reducing coal-mining and the use of coal-fired power stations would have a far greater effect. In addition Australia have still not signed the Kyoto Protocol - meeting the conditions of which would slash current emissions levels.
The US state of California (population 36 million compared to 20 million in Australia) is currently considering a similar ban on incandescent lightbulbs over the next five years. The legistalation is being proposed by Democrat California Assemblyman Lloyd Levine who said "It’s time to take a step forward – energy-efficient bulbs are easy to use, require less electricity to do the same job, cut greenhouse gas emissions, and save consumers money".
Related Links
Click here to view the official Malcolm Turnbull Website.
Article Last Modified: 11:55, 22nd Feb 2007Comment on this Article
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