It is the need of the hour...need of the environment...need of the mankind to save energy...to check the emission of green house gases. Following the path of many other countries, India has decided to launch a project to phase out the energy consuming traditional incandescent bulbs in favor of compact fluorescent lights. It is quite an important step to tackle issues like climate change and carbon emissions.

According to the Indian Energy Ministry, government will distribute 400 million compact fluorescent lights in the next three years to replace existing incandescent bulbs. A CFL consumes one-fourth of the energy as the bulbs. Andhra Pradesh and Haryana will be among the first states to receive the fluorescent lights.

Fluorescent light bulbs have enormous potential to save energy particularly in India. India is a huge country and one-fifth of its total energy is consumed by the household lighting. Currently majority of the household bulbs are energy hungry incandescent. This project would help India save 10,000 megawatts of electricity per year and will help India reduce 55 million tons of carbon emissions per year.

The high cost has been the main obstacle in the popularity of CFL bulbs. It costs about four times as much as traditional bulbs. But they are efficient and cheaper in the long run because they consume much less power and the bulb life is far longer than the incandescents. So now the Indian government will offer the CFLs for about 30 cents that is one-fourth of their cost in the market.

The movement to phase out the incandescent bulbs is becoming global as countries like China, Australia, Britain, etc are considering measures to switch to energy-efficient lamps.

It can be considered as the first step of India on the Action Plan on Climate Change adopted last year. This project put the focus on harnessing renewable energy and improving energy efficiency. India is in the list of top five emitters of greenhouse gases, and due to the rapid economic development India's emissions are rising and could significantly contribute to global warming in future