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Friday, March 09, 2007


EU-wide light bulb ban becoming possible
Ban The Bulb has heard that incandescent light bulbs have been added to EU's list of technologies under consideration as part of the EU's Action Plan on Energy Efficiency (increasing the number of technologies from 14 to 20) since 21 Feb.

Together with the EU's recent announcement of an intention to cut the EU's carbon emissions by 20% by 2020, and calls of leadership by the EU, it looks as though a a de facto ban (using changes to incentives such as VAT, technology neutral minimum standards such as lumens per watt and/or the phased ban of specific technologies) could be in the offing.

A late addition....

The Following Written Declaration was put together by Caroline Lucas MEP and was submitted prior to the EU leaders meeting in Germany. I'm afraid it's written in the political equivalent of legalese, but I hope you'll get the drift of it.

WRITTEN DECLARATION

pursuant to Rule 116 of the Rules of Procedure

by Caroline Lucas, Mojca Drcar Murko, Karin Scheele and Jens Holm

on introducing a prohibition on the sale of incandescent light bulbs in the European Union

Written declaration on introducing a prohibition on the sale of incandescent light bulbs in the European Union.

The European Parliament,

– having regard to Rule 116 of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas energy-saving is an essential part of the EU’s strategy to reduce CO2 emissions and improve security of supply,

B. whereas 80% of home lighting today uses highly inefficient incandescent bulbs that convert only 5% of energy used into light,

C. whereas these bulbs could be rapidly replaced, saving €5-8 billion across the EU in fuel bills and around 20 million tonnes of CO2,

D. whereas there is a growing worldwide move for legislation to ban incandescent bulbs, including in Cuba (May 06), Venezuela (Nov 06), California (Feb 07), Australia (Feb 07) and Ontario (Feb 07),

1. Calls upon the Commission to initiate legislation to ban the sale of incandescent light bulbs in the European Union by 2010;

2. Calls upon Member States, with EU encouragement, to immediately launch public information campaigns on the economic and environmental advantages of efficient lighting systems; and to maximise existing legislation to facilitate the phase-out of incandescent bulbs;

3. Urges the Commission to use the proposal for a new international energy efficiency agreement to launch a global ban the use of incandescent bulbs;

4. Instructs its President to forward this declaration, together with the names of the signatories, to the Commission and Member States.
 

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