Commenting on the news that the European Lamp Companies Federation are planning a major push to eliminate old style incandescent lightbulbs and replace them with more efficient "CFL" bulbs, Greenpeace energy campaigner Charlie Kronick said:
"It's a big step forward that a major manufacturing body is working to eliminate these energy hungry dinosaurs from our shops.However, it's time that government got ahead of business and imposed standards that would remove them from our shelves."
Greenpeace recently wrote to UK environment secretary David Miliband asking why we are lagging behind the Californians, who are debating a bill to outlaw these bulbs and even the Australian government, who plan to ban the incandescent bulb within three years.
Using Government figures, Greenpeace has calculated that the UK could save 5.1 million tones of CO2 per year by copying the move - the equivalent output of the 26 lowest emitting countries combined. This equals the emissions of an entire medium sized coal fired power station.
Charlie Kronick continued "While the Europeans, Californians and even the Australians are taking a lead, we're still living in the dark ages. If David Miliband is serious about reducing wasteful energy usage he should start legislating to ban these dangerous relics."
