Greenpeace activists and Prahlad Kakkar, Mahesh Bhatt, Chunky Pandey, Mahima Chowdhary, Mini Mathur, Milind Soman and Arshad Warsi in the city celebrated the launch of the Bachat Lamp Yojana, by setting up a stall at Bandra Amphitheatre and distributing Compact Florescent Lamps (CFLs) at Rs.15/- to show what the scheme would mean when it came into operation. Citizens and celebrities signed a banner that called for immediate implementation of the yojana by the state governments and electricity distribution companies.
“The Government’s announcement wasn’t per chance. Greenpeace launched the Ban the Bulb campaign in 2007, calling for a phase out of inefficient light bulbs by 2012. Over 250,000 people signed the Ban the Bulb petition demanding ordinary incandescent bulbs be replaced with efficient ways of lighting. Many joined us in human formations to take the message across, while others helped Greenpeace ‘raid’ homes, shops, hotels to change bulbs”, said Natasha Menezes, an activist from Greenpeace.
“I am happy to celebrate this success with Greenpeace. This scheme will save energy, money and the planet from climate change.” said Prahlad Kakkar, who engaged people at the stall “We got the scheme, now we need to let the local governments know that we want the scheme implemented without any delay” he added.
In India, lighting comprises 20% of all residential electricity consumption, 90% of this is wasted by incandescent bulbs in heating rather than lighting up. This is criminal, especially when we are facing a massive peak power shortage. Undoubtedly, energy efficiency is the smartest way to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and bring down carbon emissions.
Greenpeace acknowledged that the “Bachat Lamp Yojana” programme to replace 400 million incandescent bulbs with CFLs by 2012 is a good first step. If implemented correctly, the programme would save 10,000 MW of electricity and about 55 million tonnes of CO2 each year. This would have an effect equivalent to closing down four dirty coal-fired power stations. “If the whole world followed India’s lead and eliminated wasted electricity from lighting, the cumulative effect would be equivalent to shutting down around 220 coal-fired power plants”, added Sachin Singh.
Notes to Editor
The Bachat Lamp Yojana uses the Clean Development Mechanism to bring down the price of CFLs (from Rs 80- 100) to Rs 15, the price of an incandescent bulb. Under the scheme, 60 and 100 Watt incandescent lamps will be replaced with 11-15 and 20-25 Watt CFLs respectively.