EU leaders threw their weight behind the Commission's effort for greater energy savings on 9 March, stressing "the need…to achieve the objective of saving 20% of the EU's energy consumption compared to projections for 2020".
In October last year, the Commission presented an action plan to save Europe some 20% in energy consumption by 2020 and slash its energy bill by more than €100 billion annually, preventing millions of tonnes of CO2 being emitted into the atmosphere.
Following measures recently adopted by the Australian government to scrap incandescent light bulbs from Australian homes within three years (EurActiv 21/02/07), the Spring Summit on 9 March urged the Commission to "rapidly submit proposals" on:
- Energy savings from office and street lighting "to be adopted by 2008", and;
- "incandescent lamps and other forms of lighting in private households by 2009".
Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern was quoted by Reuters as saying: "We are very impressed by the Australians and before we came to the summit, we had already been in touch with them and looking at the issue."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who chaired the summit meeting, said: "We're not saying that people should throw out all the bulbs in their house today but people should start looking at what's in the shops."
"Banning old-fashioned light bulbs across the EU would cut carbon emissions by around 20 million tonnes per year – and save between €5-8bn per year in domestic fuel bills," said UK Green MEP Caroline Lucas.
Although ordinary light bulbs are cheaper, Lucas says they need to be replaced "some 15 times before an energy-saving alternative reaches the end of its life," something that she says is costing households "millions".
"It really is a win-win proposal: banning old-fashioned light bulbs would be a step towards tackling both fuel poverty and climate change."
Lucas has drafted a Written Declaration that she hopes other MEPs will endorse, calling on the Commission to propose legislation to ban ordinary light bulbs.
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