CFLs in the land of Oz

Following up to a older post on CFL lights, my dad sent me this update from today's news:

SYDNEY, Australia, Feb. 20, 2007 -- In an effort to reduce greenhouse gases, the Australian government announced today it will phase out energy-inefficient incandescent light bulbs in favor of compact fluorescents.

Australia is aiming to gradually phase out all old-style light bulbs and fully enforce new lighting standards legislation by 2009 or 2010. The step should reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by 4 million tons by 2012 and cut household lighting costs by up to 66 percent, said Environment and Water Resources Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

“The most effective and immediate way we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions is by using energy more efficiently,” Turnbull said. “Electric lighting is a vital part of our lives; globally it generates emissions equal to 70 percent of those from all the world’s passenger vehicles. But it is still very inefficient. We have been using incandescent light bulbs for 125 years and up to 90 percent of the energy each light bulb uses is wasted, mainly as heat.”

The heat loss of normal light bulbs represents millions of tons of CO2 emitted globally into the atmosphere, he said. Compact fluorescents use around 20 percent of the electricity of traditional bulbs to produce the same amount of light and also last between four and 10 times longer.

For more information, visit: www.environment.gov.au