Cancun – Indonesia could save $ 1 billion a year and cut its greenhouse gas emissions by eight million tonnes of CO2 annually – the equivalent of taking two million cars off the road a year – by switching to energy-saving bulbs .
South Africa might save US $ 280 million a year and remove emissions equal to 625,000 cars annually by following a similar path, say findings released, Wednesday, at the climate convention meeting by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
Mexico would save US $ 900 million, reducing 5 million tonnes of CO2 emissions a year in a soon to be announced plan to replace incandescent lamps in the country. With the electricity saved from this small shift, 3 coal power plants would become unnecessary.
It is expected that Brazil will save US $ 2 billion a year and 4 million tonnes of CO2 – the equivalent emissions from 1 million cars – when legislation in the country is finalized, by mid 2012.
For the Ukraine, an economy in transition, the cost savings could be US $ 210 million per annum with greenhouse gas reductions of 2 million tonnes of CO2 a year – equal to taking half a million cars off the road annually.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, said, “In reality, the actual economic benefits could be even higher. A switch to efficient lighting in Indonesia, for example, would avoid the need to build 3.5 coal-fired power stations costing US $ 2.5 billion and similar findings come from other country assessments.”
“Such calculations do not include the wider environmental, health and ‘Green Economy’ benefits to communities and countries of switching away from, for example, fuels such as kerosene and reducing emissions from sources such as fossil-fueled power stations – an estimated 1.8 million deaths a year are linked with in-door and 800,000 with out-door air pollution: more efficient lighting has a role to play here too.”
“For the past two decades, the GEF has championed market efforts to expand efficient lighting to developing countries throughout the world,” said Monique Barbut, CEO and Chairperson of the Global Environment Facility (GEF). “En.lighten is the latest initiative funded by the GEF in partnership with UNEP and leading global lighting manufacturers to accelerate market transformation of efficient lighting technologies on a global scale. Through this initiative, we hope to build a strong partnership with the private sector to encourage innovation and to help those who need our help the most build brighter futures today and for the next generation.”
The 100 Country Lighting Assessment findings have come from the ‘en.lighten Initiative’ – a partnership led by UNEP involving companies Osram and Philips.
The initiative, which today launched detailed market assessments of the environmental and economic potential of a switch to efficient lighting in 100 countries, is supported by the Global Environment Facility under its Earth Fund. The assessments analyze the benefits of shifting the obsolete incandescent lamp technology to Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs). Larger savings are expected to be achieved if other inefficient lighting technologies are also substituted, such as inefficient tube lights or inefficient halogens.
The assessments show that in Africa, a country such as Nigeria could cut its electricity consumption by over 15 per cent in a switch to energy efficient lighting while reducing CO2 emissions from fuel combustion by close to five per cent.
In Asia, a country like Cambodia could save over 30 per cent of its electricity consumption while reducing CO2 emissions by more than 13 per cent.
In Uzbekistan, electricity consumption saving could be over 20 per cent; in Croatia, nearly 10 per cent ; in Guatemala also close to 10 per cent and in Yemen just over 10 per cent.
“We believe that the en.lighten initiative is an excellent example of a new category of public/private partnerships that will help accelerate sustainable growth in emerging and developing countries,” says Harry Verhaar, Senior Director Energy & Climate Change, Philips Lighting. “The switch to energy efficient lighting solutions represents a triple win for these countries and in addition this sectoral lighting approach is also a bottom-up initiative that compliments the top-down UNFCCC process,” he says.
According to Wolfgang Gregor, Senior Vice-President, Sustainability for OSRAM GmbH, “We are not only responsible for what we are doing, but also for what we are not doing. Multinational lighting companies can no longer neglect the populations in developing and emerging markets. That is why OSRAM has given its firm commitment to the en.lighten initiative, as well as to combating the use of kerosene as a part of our off-grid lighting project.”
A principle and readily available technology is the compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL). Unlike old incandescent light bulbs which produce 95 per cent heat and just five per cent light, CFLs produce an equivalent amount of light using 75 per cent less energy. They also last up to ten times longer than incandescent bulbs.
But some critics have pointed to the health hazardous mercury, used in CFLs, as an issue that raises a question mark over the technology’s environmental credentials. Take-back schemes and the safe disposal of CFLs is clearly a key issue which ‘en.lighten’ is also addressing – this is a central challenge, especially in developing countries.
Meanwhile, other mercury-free technologies are also being promoted including Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs).
Nevertheless given that the main source of new mercury emissions world-wide is from the burning of coal, estimates indicate that overall it is far more environmentally-friendly to switch from old bulbs to new ones.
One recent study by Yale University estimated that if the United States switched to CFLs, the energy savings at power stations would lead to cuts in mercury emissions of 25,000 tonnes a year.
The 100 country assessments come in the wake of a UNEP study, conducted in collaboration with researchers from 25 leading climate modeling centres world-wide.
This showed that if all countries met in full their pledges linked with last year’s Copenhagen Accord, emissions by 2020 could fall to 49 Gigatonnes (billion).
It could leave a gap of 5Gt between this current ambition and where scientists say emissions need to be in 2020 to stand a reasonable chance of keeping a global temperature rise to less than 2 degree C by 2050.
