ban the bulb

Good news on the energy conservation front - Ireland will be the first EU country to ban energy-wasting incandescent lightbulbs.

The Irish government announced today that, as part of its national Carbon budget, the old-style power hungry bulbs will be banned from 2009. Greenpeace congratulates the Ireland on its decision to lead the world in this simple but essential step in tackling climate change.

Something that drives me nuts is when people use the example of developing economies such as China or India as an excuse for inactivity on climate change - the "what's the bloody point" argument, which insists that any savings we might make in CO2 emissions using renewables will be more than cancelled out by their use of dirty energy. It's not that there's not an element of truth in this - it's the refusal to recognise that we in the west have any influence or responsibility in the matter. After all, a key driver in India and China's rapid development is our insatiable demand for insanely cheap products - which forces them to use the clapped out and dirty technlogies we are trying to break away from.