Santo Domingo (Dominican
Republic), 4 August
2011 - Government representatives from 26
countries in Latin America and the Caribbean
have voiced their support for the phasing
out of incandescent light bulbs. Such a
move could save the region an estimated
US$4 billion a year in energy costs.
Participants at a regional
meeting of the UNEP-backed en.lighten initiative
signed the "Santo Domingo Declaration",
which states that the phase out of incandescent
lamps is one of the easiest ways to reduce
CO2 emissions and achieve significant energy
and financial savings.
The meeting was held
in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on
4 August 2011 in conjunction with the 2011
Latin American and Caribbean Energy Efficiency
Seminar by Organización Latinoamericana
de la Energía (OLADE).
en.lighten is an initiative
funded by the Global Environment Facility
(GEF), in partnership with the United Nations
Enviornment Programme (UNEP) and leading
global lighting manufacturers (Philips and
OSRAM), to accelerate market transformation
of efficient lighting technologies on a
global scale.
At the meeting in Santo
Domingo,UNEP and partner regional organizations
addressed key regional stakeholders and
explored opportunities for governments to
formally participate in a globally coordinated
effort to transition to efficient lighting
as a key efficiency and climate mitigation
measure. The emphasis was on the phase-out
of general purpose incandescent light bulbs,
the most common type for consumers.
Energy efficiency officials
and climate change focal points from 26
countries participated in the event including;
representatives from the Ministries of Energy,
Environment, national utilities, manufacturing,
international organizations and NGOs. Bernard
Jamet, Head of the UNEP Technology Transfer
Unit, opened the session by introducing
the en.lighten program and its role within
ongoing climate change negotiations.
"en.lighten's ultimate
success will be gauged by the number of
countries that commit to its goal of phasing-out
inefficient lighting," said Mr Jamet.
The en.lighten partnership
aims to restrict the global supply of inefficient
light bulbs and promote market adoption
of most efficient alternatives by way of
an "integrated approach" including:
Adoption of globally
harmonized minimum energy performance standards
(MEPS) for CFL performance by December 31,
2015, leading to the phase-out of all incandescent
lamps by this date
Setting up of monitoring,
verification and enforcement (MVE) schemes
in countries to ensure compliance with global
standards and remove low quality products
from the marketplace
Supporting interested
countries in establishing focused waste
management efforts including: waste collection,
disposal and/or recycling
Country support activities
in the form of communications, policies
and innovative finance mechanisms to encourage
and support the transition to effcient lighting
Technical suport developed
by international experts for those countries
willing to develop national efficient lighting
strategies and join the en.lighten partnership.
These efforts are necessary
to overcome failed examples in many countries
in which low quality Compact fluorescent
lamps (CFLs) have limited the the market
penetration of efficient lighting technologies.
The UNEP/GEF en.lighten initiative proposes
an integrated approach to ensure the success
of countries in their efforts to move towards
efficient lighting including providing support
to set up successful end of life strategies
for spent CFLs.
Country Lighting Assessments
have been generated for most countries around
the world to explain the significant savings
potential of the transition to more efficient
lighting.
In the 20 countries
from Latin America and the Caribbean analyzed,
4% of total electricity consumption would
be saved if incandescent lamps were substituted
with compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs).This
totals US$4 billion per year of savings
for consumers in energy bills, and the equivalent
carbon emissions of 4 million cars. Eight
large power plants (500 MW) could be closed
in the region due to increased energy efficiency
Roberto Gonzalez Vale
of Cuba's Ministry of Basic Industry, the
official that led Cuba's prime phase out
efforts in 2006, stressed the need to share
best practices and lessons learned from
countries within the region. "There
are major gaps that exist such as in the
effective development of phase-out legislation,
the implementation of quality control and
verification policies or the proper handling
of discarded bulbs," said Vale. He
demonstrated his stanch support for the
en.lighten initiative by strongly encouraging
representatives to participate in the UNEP
partnership to ensure that the region works
to effectively complete the transition.
Representatives from
the Energy and Environment Ministries of
several countries made presentations on
their successful domestic efforts to phase-out
incandescent bulbs, including Argentina,
Mexico, Ecuador and Cuba.
According to Alicia
Baragatti of the Argentinean Ministry of
Energy, "technologies like mobile phones
are advancing in the region at an incredible
rate. Establishing minimum energy performance
standard could help the efficient lighting
secotr achieve similar progress."The
efficient lighting sector should be on a
similarly path though the establishment
of minimum energy performance standards."
All country delegates
who presented in the meeting agreed that
consumer confidence in energy efficient
lighting technologies presented an important
challenge.. Poor performance could undermine
consumer trust, making it more difficult
to encourage the large-scale adoption of
new CFL technology. This has been the experience
in the United States, Europe and recently
in Bangladesh.
UNEP has created a Centre
of Excellence on Efficient Lighting based
in Paris, France to assist countries that
partner with the en.lighten initiative to
develop national efficient lighting strategies
and plans. The Center of Excellence is to
start providing communications, policy and
technical support to countries that engage
in this partnership. A high level event
will take place at the UN Sustainable Development
Conference (also known as Rio+20) in Rio
de Janeiro, in June 2012, where partner
countries will be publicly recognized for
their efforts to move to low carbon economies
and reap the benefits of efficient lighting.
It is also planned to formally convey the
Santo Domingo Declaration to world leaders
and participants at the Rio+20 conference
as a successful strategy for moving toards
a low-carbon, resource efficient Green Economy.
The Green Economhy will be one of the central
themes of Rio+20.
The governments of Uruguay
and the Dominican Republic have become the
first two in the region to join the en.lighten
partnership. Other countries in the region
are expected to formalize their participation
in the very near future.
UNEP's Regional Representative,
Margarita Astrálaga, asserted that
Latin America and the Caribbean will become
the first developing and emerging region
in phasing out incandescent lamps and obtain
the financial and climate benefits of this
transition. She also committed to bring
the "Santo Domingo Declaration"
to the Environment Ministers meeting in
January 2012.
The Comisión
Nacional de Energia (CNE) Minister, Enrique
Ramirez, closed the conference by announcing
that the Dominican Republic's Presidential
Palace has committed to remove all of their
incandescent lamps and replace them with
LEDs. CNE will lead the way in demonstrating
the government's commitment to efficiency
and to act as an example for the private
sector and consumers. He also advocated
that all Energy Ministers in Latin America
and the Caribbean join the en.lighten partnership
and adopt the "Santo Domingo Declaration"
to achieve the phase-out of incandescent
lamps in Latin America and Caribbean countries
before the end of 2015.
Notes to Editors
Key Lighting Facts:
The Dominican Republic
will save 109 million $ per year and the
equivalent emissions of 100,000 cars if
incandescent lamps were phased out. Many
of the country's supply problems and regular
"black outs" could be avoided.
It is expected that
Brazil will save $ 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.
Ecuador will save $46
million USD per year and cut its greenhouse
gas emissions by 300,000 tonnes of CO2 annually-the
equivalent of taking 75,000 cars off the
road a year by switching to energy saving
bulbs .
Using current economic
and energy-efficiency trends, it is projected
that global demand for artificial light
will be 60% higher by 2030 if no switch
occurs
The International Energy
Agency (IEA) estimated in 2007, the total
electricity consumption due to lighting
at 2650 TWh. This represents almost 19%
of global electricity use (15-17% greater
than nuclear or hydro power).
The total global GHG
emissions accrued to lighting electricity
consumption was estimated in 2005 by the
IEA at 1,889 MtCO2 of which grid based lighting
systems contribute to 1,528 MtCO2. This
is equivalent to approximately 8% of world
emissions or 70% of the world passenger
vehicle emissions
Up to 95% of the energy
emitted by incandescent lamps is heat, and
their efficiency is inherently low. In comparison,
incandescent bulbs last around 1,000 hours
which is significantly shorter than energy
saving lamps which can last up to 12,000
hours. CFLs can now also be dimmed.
Like all fluorescent
lamps, CFLs contain mercury, which complicates
their disposal. Mercury is a hazardous substance
in fluorescent lamps. en.lighten will support
countries in setting up sustainable end
of life approaches for spent lamps.
The average mercury
content in a CFL bulb is about 3 milligrams
- roughly the amount it would take to cover
the tip of a ball-point pen. By comparison,
older thermometers contain 500 milligrams
of mercury - the equivalent of more than
100 CFLs
Experts emphasize that
mercury is also emitted from coal-fired
power stations. Studies indicate that the
level of emissions from power stations linked
with lighting the world's old bulbs are
far higher than those linked with the disposal
of energy efficient bulbs.
Solid State Lighting
(SSL) technology is expected to achieve
efficiencies at least ten times higher than
incandescent lamps and up to twice as high
as fluorescent lamps. Light Emitting Diode
(LED) lamps, aside from not containing mercury
have other advantages such as long life,
warm light colour similar to incandescent
lamps and low heat generation.
www.enlighten-initiative.org
