IGPN - International Green Purchasing Network

June 10, 2007

Industry seeks leadership on light-bulb efficiency

European lamp makers proposed a phase-out of the least efficient lamps in homes by 2015. The Commission reacted favourably to the industry initiative, while Greenpeace criticised the timeline as being too long.

Energy efficiency measures are a central part of the EU's strategy to reduce greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions, particularly in light of the 8-9 March European Council Conclusions, which called for a 20% reduction in CO2 emissions in the EU by 2020. In respect of lighting, the European Council called on the Commission "to rapidly submit proposals to enable increased energy efficiency requirements on office and street lighting to be adopted by 2008 and on incandescent lamps and other forms of lighting in private households by 2009".

Efficiency standards for lamps and lighting are laid out in the EU's 2005 eco-design of energy using products directive, the EuP or 'Eco-design' Directive. As a framework Directive, the Eco-design directive applies to 20 product groups (including lamps) but does not provide specific targets or measures for each group: these are set at a later stage in separate implementing measures, after an impact assessment and consultation with stakeholders.

The phase-out initiative, proposed by GE, OSRAM, Philips, Havells Sylvania and other members of the European Lamp Companies Federation (ELC), applies to all traditional and highly inefficient incandescent light bulbs. ELC estimates that this would lead to a 60% annual reduction in CO2 emissions from home lighting.
Industry proposes that the phase-out takes place in two-year stages, starting with a ban on 100 Watt bulbs in 2009 and finishing with a ban on 25 Watt bulbs in 2015. As part of its proposal, the industry is also pushing for strict "market surveillance mechanisms" to ensure proper compliance across the sector.

Sharon Becker of Greenpeace International criticised the proposal's timeline, saying that: "When products become trendy, markets can move very quickly to meet demand. It took almost no time for everybody to have a digital camera on their mobile phone and an ipod in their pocket. Efficient lightbulbs are not a new technology and could easily replace wasteful lightbulbs within two and a half years." In a related development, the group staged a demonstration against "energy-wasting products" on 20 April in Berlin, crushing thousands of incandescent light bulbs with mechanised road rollers at the Brandenburg Gate.

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