Following on from Australia's pledge to phase out the usage of incandescent bulbs, the 27 leaders of the European Union have decided that all member states will have to use energy efficient lighting (such as compact fluorescent bulb also called
energy saving lamp) before 2010. The switchover, which will affect all of the EU's 470 million+ citizens, was developed with the aim of meeting targets to reduce energy usage by 20 percent by 2020 (say that three times fast): to that end, a commission will be accepting proposals for enabling the switchover "for office and street lighting to be adopted by 2008 and on incandescent lamps and other forms of lighting in private households by 2009." No doubt there will be some that attempt to lump this decision into the euroskeptic "straight bananas" category, although the chair of the 27 nation summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, stated that this won't be a case of people being forced to throw out existing energy inefficient bulbs, "but people should start looking at what's in the shops." Hopefully anti-EU political groups will put their views aside this time in order that this switchover goes smoothly, although something tells us lobbyists won't be the biggest concern when it comes to changing bulbs in houses and offices across 27 different countries.
Background
Australian Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced on 20 February that his government will phase-out traditional light bulbs in the next three years, with a full ban expected from 2009. Replacing the incandescent bulbs with energy saving bulbs (energy-efficient compact fluorescent lamps, short for CFLs) could cut 4 million tonnes from the country's greenhouse-gas emissions by 2012, Turnbull said.
Issues:
Financial Times Germany reported that the Australian announcement had inspired German legislators to call for similar phase-out measures in their country. SPD energy expert and MP Hermann Scheer said that Germany could save "one to two nuclear power plants" if the government were to introduce a ban on incandescent lamps.
But an SPD spokesperson said that national bans on such products would not be possible because of EU internal-market rules. The German government could try to convince the EU to adopt an approach which would set the most energy-efficient model as an EU standard.
EU energy spokesman Ferran Tarradellas told EurActiv that the Commission has no intentions in its energy-efficiency action plan to ban products such as traditional light bulbs. "We prefer to give incentives to promote the most energy-efficient products and to inform consumers," Tarradellas confirmed.
Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) use much less energy than traditional lamps and last around four times as long. However, they also have disadvantages - they are more expensive, require more energy to produce and their functionality is not the same (less 'warm' in the light and they are not dimmable). There is also a potential environmental problem, as CFLs contain mercury and therefore more care needs to be taken concerning their disposal. For more information on CFLs, see Wikipedia .
Australia is not the first country in the world to consider an outright ban for incandescent light bulbs. In California, a similar proposal to ban the traditional lamps by 2012 was presented in January 2007 under the name "How Many Legislators Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb Act ".
欧盟将全面封杀白炽灯泡 荧光节能灯作为替代产品
欧盟将全面封杀白炽灯泡，欧盟是欧洲联盟的中文简称，英文全称为 European Union ，缩写为 EU。
9日结束的欧盟春季首脑会议已经达成协议，两年内欧洲各国将逐步用节能荧光灯取代能耗高的老式白炽灯泡，以减少温室气体排放。
在全球气候变暖的大背景下，9日闭幕的布鲁塞尔欧盟春季首脑会议通过了该项协议。欧盟各国领导人已经知会欧盟委员会尽快通过提案，2009年以前在个人家庭中逐步淘汰白炽灯。
《每日邮报》记者柯丝蒂·沃克和菲奥纳·麦克雷推测，在具体措施上，各国最可能实施的方案是从2009年规定日期开始，禁止生产白炽灯泡，而库存商品将获准继续在市场上流通。
节能荧光灯比用钨丝做发光体的白炽灯消耗电力少，尽管价格比白炽灯贵，但是从长期来看，它的使用寿命更长，因此反而更便宜。由于节能灯的电力能耗低，如果白炽灯被替代，将会节省大量电能，减少燃料使用量，从而减少二氧化碳等温室气体的排放。
以气候变化和能源政策为讨论焦点的会议还通过了一系列“绿色”协议，内容包括减排温室气体和推广使用可再生能源。此外，欧盟各国领导人还制定了计划，在2008年底以前提高办公室和街道采光的能源使用效率。
欧盟各国均表示赞同
为了推动通过这项终结“白炽灯时代”的协议，欧盟轮值主席国德国总理安格拉·默克尔可谓尽心尽力。
本次欧盟峰会结束后，默克尔在新闻发布会上指出，提高能源使用效率的话题并不仅仅和大工厂、大企业或政治家相关。默克尔说，全球气候变暖影响到每个人，每个人都应该为解决这一问题而努力。
其他欧盟国家对淘汰白炽灯以减排温室气体的做法也表示赞同。
澳大利亚在今年2月宣布一项计划，将在2010年前全面禁用白炽灯，预计到2012年，此举可使澳大利亚每年减少80万吨温室气体的排放。
英国首相托尼·布莱尔在布鲁塞尔发言时说，如果英国每户家庭使用3盏节能灯，节省的电能将足够支持他们住宅所在街道路灯一年的采光。
目前市场上的节能灯型号远不如白炽灯丰富，无法适用不同配备的电灯系统，价格也比较昂贵。节能灯还存在一些问题，比如光线有些暗淡。节能灯行业正在开发明亮程度不逊于白炽灯的节能灯。
节能灯行业的有关人员则认为，随着市场需求增加，节能灯的价格会下降，型号也会增加。不过，这需要时间。