Call to action on climate change at Bali

At the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) held in Bali in December, Philips called for action on climate change, outlining specific steps industry and government can adopt to reduce CO₂ emissions while maintaining economic growth.

Philips is calling on developed and developing countries in Asia"Pacific to embrace energy-efficient lighting solutions that are available today and accelerate the replacement of outdated polluting technologies, because market adoption is extremely slow considering the severity of the current climate change crisis.

Harry Verhaar, senior director, Energy & Climate Change, Philips Lighting, who presented at UNFCCC said: "Realising the sense of urgency in creating a framework at Bali that will move us all towards low carbon economies, we hope governments will take steps towards introducing concrete environmental performance targets for buildings and roads and labelling schemes for products, as well as offering financial incentives that overcome initial investment hurdles, and finally stimulate further green procurement in energy-efficient lighting for public buildings, schools and roads."

Verhaar says that Philips research in 2007 showed the potential energy savings from energy-efficient lighting is around 40%: "These energy savings on all the lighting currently installed globally would save more than &128;100 billion in energy costs, equating to over 550 million tonnes of CO₂. Given that we can realistically save 40% of all energy used to light up our cities, homes and workplaces with technology available today, the opportunity to respond to this call to action is in the hands of each of the delegates and heads of state attending UNFCCC."

Beyond the call to action at UNFCCC, Philips has launched the 'a simple switch' campaign (www.asimpleswitch.com) which communicates to the public that energy management solutions can be simple and easy to implement. Visitors to the website have pledged to switch over 3.3 million incandescent light bulbs to energy-saving alternatives since the campaign started in July 2007.