Australia to switch off old bulbs
23.FEB.07
AUSTRALIA â Australia has announced plans to ban incandescent light bulbs and replace them with more energy efficient fluorescent bulbs.
The environment minister said the move could cut the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by 4 million tonnes by 2012.
“It’s a little thing but it’s a massive change,” Malcolm Turnbull said.
The decision will make Australia the first country to ban the light bulbs, although the idea has also been proposed in the US state of California.
Turnbull said that he hoped the rest of the world would follow Australia’s lead in banning the traditional bulbs.{{more}}
“If the whole world switches to these bulbs today, we would reduce our consumption of electricity by an amount equal to five times Australia’s annual consumption of electricity,” he said.
The incandescent light bulb, which wastes energy in heat dispersed while the light is switched on, is based on a design invented by Thomas Edison in 1879.
The bulbs will be completely phased out by 2010 and replaced with the more fuel efficient compact fluorescent models which use around 20% of the electricity to produce the same amount of light.
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