Climate change prompts Australia to ban light bulbs

AUSTRALIA has announced plans to ban traditional light bulbs in a move Prime Minister John Howard called a practical step toward slowing climate change.

Claiming a world first for a national government, Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull said incandescent light bulbs would be phased out by 2010 in favour of the more fuel-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs.

He said replacing the traditional coiled filament bulbs invented by Thomas Edison in the 19th century would cut Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions by four million tonnes a year by 2015.

“If the whole world switches to these bulbs today, we would reduce our consumption of electricity by an amount equal to five times Australia’s annual consumption of electricity,” Mr Turnbull said.

Conservative leader Mr Howard, who has softened his sceptical stance on global warming as an election looms later this year, said he was a “climate change realist”.

“We need to take practical measures in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Mr Howard.

Green groups and the opposition Labor Party welcomed the move but said the government needed to examine more meaningful ways to reduce global warming, including signing the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions.