If you've been wondering what's been happening on the light bulb front since our Woolworths campaign last year (and much as they were in our bad books, it's sorry to see them go), there's been some developments on the European stage where politicians have been voting on plans to improve their efficiency and so reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the EU.

The good news is that, on Tuesday, the EU has at long last agreed on a ban of inefficient incandescent light bulbs; the somewhat worse news is that we'll have to wait several years for it to come into full effect. In the meantime, inefficient bulbs will still be on sale and given the desperate need to reduce emissions, it's not enough and it's not soon enough.

Well, all of them, but the Co-op has made a fine start. The supermarket has announced that it’s going to remove all inefficient light bulbs from its shelves within a few months. Gone are the energy-leaching incandescent bulbs and in comes a wider, brighter selection of efficient compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), which use five times less energy and last up to 12 times longer.