High-energy light bulbs will begin to be phased out from shops within months, under a timetable agreed by retailers and energy companies.

Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, said yesterday that the plan to replace all traditional light bulbs with energy-efficient light bulbs within four years would save the equivalent of five million tonnes of CO2 a year.

The deal is likely to be used by Gordon Brown as a practical example of the Government’s environment policy as he prepares to do battle with David Cameron for the green vote.

The Prime Minister wants Britain to be among the first countries in Europe to phase out standard light bulbs. Television set-top boxes and standby buttons are next in the Government’s sights as ministers try to encourage manufacturers to offer more energy-saving products.

Under the voluntary agreement, the largest retailers and many corner shops will stop replacing their stock of the brightest 150-watt bulbs from next January. They have agreed to stop selling 100-watt bulbs by January 2009, and to scrap 60-watt bulbs by January 2010. Remaining standard incandescent light bulbs, chiefly 40-watt bulbs and “candle” and “golf-ball” lamps, would be removed from sale by December 2011.

Kevin Hawkins, director-general of the British Retail Consortium, said: “Retailers are committed to reducing their carbon footprint and play an active role in helping consumers reduce their own environmental impact.”

Philip Sellwood, of the Energy Saving Trust, which advises householders on reducing usage, was delighted with the move. “If everyone in the UK installed three energy-saving light bulbs, we would save enough energy to power all the UK’s street lighting for a year,” he said.

Ministers will publish a consultation paper soon, proposing new standards for more energy-efficient domestic lighting products.

Environmentalist campaigners gave the move a guarded welcome, urging the Government to go farther with compulsory action rather than a voluntary deal, but it was belittled by the Conservatives.

John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, said: “This initiative, which will reduce the UK’s CO2 emissions and finally begin to consign these hugely energy wasteful bulbs to the history books, is long overdue.

“However, almost all of the retailers involved have already committed to removing these bulbs ahead of 2011 after a campaign by Greenpeace. We think the Government needs to go further and introduce tough mandatory efficiency standards rather than relying on weak voluntary initiatives.”

Peter Ainsworth, the Shadow Environment Secretary, said: “If this is the sum of Labour’s commitment to the environment it is clear why they have consistently failed to meet our emission targets.”

In his conference speech, Mr Benn also confirmed that the Government planned to give ramblers a statutory right of access to the whole of England’s coastline. “I can confirm today that we now intend to legislate so that each of us has – for the first time in our history – the right to walk around our coastline from the white cliffs of the South Coast to the wild cliffs of Northumberland,” he told delegates.

Time to switch off

600m light sockets in the UK
10-15% of a household’s electricity bill is due to light bulbs
1.8bn is spent on lighting homes each year
£7 average saving for each incandescent bulb replaced with an energy saving bulb
80% less electricity is used by energy-saving bulbs compared with traditional bulbs

Sources: Energy Saving Trust & Defra

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