Thursday, February 22, 2007

Light bulb idea 'came from environmentalist'. 20/02/2007. ABC News Online

Light bulb idea 'came from environmentalist'.

The Federal Opposition says a plan by the Government to phase out conventional light bulbs in three years is a good idea, but it did not originate in the Government.

Federal Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull says the incandescent light bulbs will be replaced with more energy efficient ones.

"It'll be illegal to sell a product that doesn't meet the energy standard so that'll happen by 2009, 2010, and so by that stage you simply won't be able to buy incandescent light bulbs because they won't meet the energy standard," he said.

Opposition environment spokesman Peter Garrett says the idea for the change came from John Dee of Planet Ark, and the Government has reacted to mounting pressure on climate change.

Mr Garrett says the Government needs to do a lot more to help reduce greenhouse gases, but this plan is welcome.

"My understanding is that this was an idea that was initiated by Mr Dee and he'd been in discussion with the Government about it and how he finds it on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald," he said.

"It is a good idea, we're not going to pooh-pooh it on the basis of its merits.

"But we are going to point out that it hasn't come from the Government, it's come from a leading environmentalist.

"But sure, it's something we should address, it's something we should do."

Mr Garrett says the Government needs to do more to fight climate change.

"The major producers of greenhouse gas emissions in this country are not individuals, they're governments and business," he said.

Mr Garrett says the government should introduce an emissions trading scheme and sign the Kyoto protocol.

"There's no target, there's no timeline, we still don't have a national emissions trading scheme and senior ministers appear to be in disagreement about that," he said.

Mr Garrett says the Government is divided on climate change.

Excessive light fittings

Architects say households should cut down on the number of light fittings to reduce greenhouse gases rather than use energy-saving light bulbs.

The building advisory service Archicentre says conventional light bulbs are used in ovens and refrigerators as well as conventional light fittings and it will be difficult to change them all over.

Archicentre's Angus Kell says it is not the best solution to the problem.

"I think there are other issues I mean we can go back to the old-fashioned idea of turning off lights as we leave rooms or just not put in as many fittings into a house, when you look at the moment with the voltage lights fittings, we tend to put in four fittings to a room, or six or eight," he said.

"Many years ago you designed a house with one or two fittings only.

"I mean that really comes down to the excessive

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