Press

India to use carbon market to fund lightbulb programme

By John McGarrity
Point Carbon

India is to use sales of UN carbon credits to fund a nationwide phase-out of incandescent bulbs.

The Indian government today launched a programme to replace 400 million incandescent bulbs with energy efficient compact fluorescent ones, possibly saving 10,000MW of electricity generation from highly coal-intensive power grids.

The government said in a press release that the lightbulb-replacement programme would "make sure (the scheme) can cover all of India."

Environmental pressure group Greenpeace said the programme may eventually cut 55 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year compared to emissions resulting from the use of incandescent bulbs, which emit five times more than energy efficient lightbulbs.

Replacing 400 million incandescent bulbs would account for most of the energy-wasting bulbs used in India, the world's second-most populous country and reportedly the world's third biggest emitter of greenhouse gases behind China and the US.

The Indian government said it would fund its measures by selling UN-backed carbon credits earned through using less electricity by phasing out older lightbulbs.

Programmes that cut use of greenhouse gases through the Kyoto protocol's CDM aim to scale up emissions cuts on a much wider scale compared with a project-by-project approach.

Cost

UN rules on how programmes will earn carbon credits have yet to be clarified, but the Indian lightbulb scheme is by far the biggest of its kind to be launched with the CDM in mind.

India's Bureau of energy efficiency will co-ordinate the lightbulb scheme, along with power companies and the manufacturers of energy efficient lightbulbs, including Phillips, Osram and GE.

India aims that its nationwide programme will bring down the price of energy efficient lightbulbs from a current price of 80-100 Rupees ($1.60-$2.00) to 15 Rupees, close to the price of an incandescent bulb.

Proving that revenue from carbon finance was key in making the programme viable will be key if the scheme is to get issued with carbon credits by the UN.

Copenhagen

Signatories to the Kyoto protocol are keen to give encouragement to programmes, which are seen as relatively cheap and easy ways of making big emissions cuts in developing countries.

Replacement of lightbulbs and other energy efficiency measures are a central pillar in India's climate change policy document launched last year.

This set of proposals, which outlines ways the world's fifth-biggest economy can use cleaner energy and cut down on the waste of electricity, is likely to form the basis of India's position at crunch climate talks in Copenhagen in December.

But many developed countries want India to do more in cutting its emissions, including caps on heavily polluting industries and the power sector.