Greenpeace has launched a campaign across Indian to push for a ban on the common light bulb to cut greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change. The group is campaigning to have incandescent bulbs banned and replaced with compact fluorescent lamps (CFL), a move it says will help India save 12,000 megawatts of electricity a year -- or 4% of carbon dioxide emissions.
Greenpeace aims to collect one million signatures on a "ban-the-bulb" petition it will present to Indian policymakers, said G. Ananthapadmanabhan, executive director of the environmental group's India chapter. "It needs a strong call from the public to push governments to take required steps," Ananthapadmanabhan said.
Incandescent bulbs lose 90% of the energy that goes into them as heat while a CFL bulb uses about 20% of the electricity to produce the same amount of light. Every watt of electricity produced involves carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to greenhouse gases and global warming, because the major source of electricity in India is coal-fuelled power plants.
Australia has announced plans to ban incandescent light bulbs, a move that will cut its greenhouse gas emissions by four million tons by 2012, according to Greenpeace.
Critics of the campaign, however, say CFLs are more expensive and contain more parts that harm the environment than regular bulbs.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2007