Press release - November 15, 2007
Greenpeace today expressed impatience with the Ministry of Power for dragging its feet on action to ban the bulb and cut India's carbon emissions up to 95 million tons (1).
Activists delivered a quarter of a million petitions signed by Indians from across the country in support of the demand and held a banner that said, "Only when Kolkata is submerged and the Ganga dry will you realize that you took too long to ban the bulb" to draw attention to the laid-back response from the ministry.
Activists delivered a quarter of a million petitions signed by
Indians from across the country in support of the demand and held a
banner that said, "Only when Kolkata is submerged and the Ganga dry
will you realize that you took too long to ban the bulb" to draw
attention to the laid-back response from the ministry.
The IPCC report on mitigation released in May 2007 states that
emissions must start declining by 2015 to prevent the world's
temperature from rising more than two degrees centigrade over
pre-industrialized temperatures. The Prime Minister had announced
that a 'Bachat Lamp Yojana' will be in place to address the climate
crisis by August 15 as one of two measures that India would embark
on to cut carbon emissions (2). "We have a window of 100 months to
drastically control our carbon emissions or else surrender the
country's future to catastrophic impacts of climate change. The
Ministry of Power has failed to grasp the relevance of phasing out
inefficient lighting in the context of climate change", said
Soumyabrata Rahut, Climate and Energy expert with Greenpeace.
"Eight months have already been wasted in the battle to save the
planet from global warming, and yet the ministry of power has
failed to live up to the promise held out by the Prime Minister.
The inability to even implement the simplest legislation that would
reduce up to 5% of India's CO2 emission brings into focus the
cavalier attitude of the ministry in tackling climate change", he
said.
At the upcoming climate negotiation to be held at Bali,
Indonesia in December 2007, it is expected that the Indian
government will propose voluntary reductions as their contribution
to fight climate change.
According to Greenpeace the credibility of the government is at
stake internationally if by then it is unable to put a simple
mechanism in place. Greenpeace claims that it is no longer
acceptable that the Power Ministry says a proposal is being
developed. By now the details of the proposal with timelines and
annual emission reduction figures that will be met by implementing
a mechanism to phase out the incandescent light bulb should have
been made public. This is the only way in which the power ministry
can begin to demonstrate its commitment to tackling climate
change.
For further information, contact
Soumyabrata Rahut, Greenpeace Climate and Energy expert M: +91 9845535403
Ruchira Talukdar, Greenpeace Communications M: +91 9900264127
Notes to Editor
1. Greenpeace calculations reveal that the range of avoidable emissions lies between 73 million tons to 95 million tons per annum. The former estimate is on the basis of the number of light sockets that the industry (ELCOMA) provides while the latter is based on the extrapolation of lighting data obtained through a market survey conducted by IMRS, commissioned by Greenpeace in August 2007 .
2. Prime">http://pmindia.nic.in/speech/content.asp?id=561">Prime ministers speech as chairman of the climate council in July promising action by August 15