China speeds up the promotion of green lighting

China will gradually eliminate incandescent lamps and speed up the promotion of green lighting in a bid to boost energy saving and emissions reduction, according to a project jointly initiated by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

China, one of the major producers and consumers of the lighting equipments in the world, produced 4.44 billion incandescent lamps in 2007, or about one third of the world output, of which 2.98 billion were exported, according to the NDRC.

China also produced 3 billion highly-efficient impact fluorescent lamps last year, or 80 percent of the world's total. About 2.2 billion of them were exported.

The NDRC said lighting now accounts for about 12 percent of China's total electricity consumption, and using of energy-saving bulbs could cut consumption by 60 to 80 percent.

It is said if the existing incandescent lamps were replaced with energy saving bulbs, 48 billion kilowatts of electricity would be saved.

"Thus, green lighting is a major way to achieve the goal of energy saving and emissions reduction," said the NDRC.