China gives inefficient bulbs the boot

I had one of those meetings this morning where I was doodling on my notebook rather than listening as attentively as perhaps I should have been, but the words 'China', 'light' and 'bulbs' caught my attention. I started paying even more attention when I realised it related to the news that China will be phasing out incandescent bulbs in the next 10 years.

Wow. The most populous nation on the planet with (arguably) the largest carbon dioxide emissions is going to get rid of inefficient lighting by 2017, or thereabouts. Details are sketchy - Reuters is carrying the story - and searching Google News and Technorati reveals that not too many people have picked up on it yet.

But the implications are pretty staggering. When folks in rich nations whine that there's no point reducing emissions because the booming economies in China and India will swamp any cuts made, I can now point to an example where at least one of those countries is steaming ahead of the US, the EU and, of course, the UK. Greenpeace India is working on their government, so hopefully we'll see similar news from there in the near future.

China is the first developing country to sign up to a light bulb programme established by the Global Environment Facility. I hadn't heard of this particular organisation before but perhaps that's not surprising - according to Reuters, it's "one of the richest and least-known environmental funding agencies worldwide." Monique Barbut, chief executive officer of the facility, says it means China will save the equivalent of roughly half of Germany's annual emissions.

Ten years sounds a lot compared to our own government's drive to phase out incandescents by the end of 2011, but their plan is only voluntary. So by 2017, we could well see inefficient bulbs on sale in those UK shops that haven't volunteered to get rid of them, whereas China will be completely incandescent-free. Oh, the shame.