The EU and UK are the third and tenth highest emitting economies in the appliances sector respectively, offering great potential for CLASP’s work and a notable global influence. Over the upcoming months, CLASP will be increasing our support and engagement with organizations, individuals and decision makers in the European Union and United Kingdom through more extensive communication efforts.

With the new CLASP Europe Twitter account (@CLASP_Europe), our team will be able to connect with new partners and advocates in the EU and UK and participate in the conversation about how to best prepare the region for a sustainable and efficient future.

@CLASP_Europe will feature engaging content on the latest research, tools, and analyses from CLASP and our partners, as well as lively conversations among leading voices in the climate mitigation & energy efficiency sectors. Followers can expect to see news on policy milestones, upcoming events and campaigns, videos, and more. Join the conversation and come follow us, we want to hear from you!

Since 2010, CLASP has worked alongside European policymakers and partners to achieve critical climate mitigation goals across the region. Learn more about our efforts in the EU and UK.

Since 2010, CLASP has worked alongside European policymakers and partners to achieve critical climate mitigation goals across the region. With the increasingly urgent need to cut emissions and pollution in the EU and UK, CLASP is ramping up our capacity for impact.

We are excited to share that long-time CLASP team member, Nicole Kearney, is stepping into the role of Director of CLASP’s Europe program.

Ranging from clean cookstoves to efficient cooling to policy compliance, Nicole has provided expert insight to a wide range of programs.

“Nicole’s leadership and international experience in the sector has, and continues to be, a true asset to CLASP’s climate mitigation work,” said Ana Maria Carreño, Senior Director of Climate. “I look forward to working alongside Nicole and the whole CLASP Europe team to maximize impacts of our work in the region.”

Prior to joining CLASP in 2012, Nicole worked on European Ecodesign, energy labeling product policies, and compliance for the UK government. She received a comprehensive regional education, studying in the UK, France and Germany – ultimately earning a Master’s by Research in European Environmental Law from the University of Warwick.

To keep up to date on CLASP’s work in Europe, subscribe to our newsletter, explore our updates archive and research library and follow our new Europe Twitter account, @CLASP_Europe.

After more than two years, we are excited to attend in-person conferences to share insights into our global appliance energy efficiency work. From 1-3 June, team members from our Washington D.C., Nairobi, Europe and New Delhi offices will present at the International Conference on Energy Efficiency in Domestic Appliances and Lighting (EEDAL) in Toulouse, France.

Their presentations will cover the impact of television and lighting efficiency policy in India; Mepsy, a new tool to model energy and carbon reduction policies; product registration systems to support compliance of energy efficiency policies; opportunities for solar e-waste management in Sub-Saharan Africa; digital marketing campaigns for national energy labels; online energy label regulation in our changing digital markets, and more.

Find out more about their sessions below and reach out if you or one of your colleagues will be attending.

Wednesday June 1st, 2022

14:00 – 15:40
Session 1.a Policy 1
Evaluation of Television Efficiency Policy and Market Transformation in India
Kishore Kumar, CLASP India

Introducing Mepsy: The Appliance & Equipment Climate Impact Calculator
Angellah Wekongo, CLASP Kenya

Thursday June 2nd, 2022

10:45-12:25
Session 4.a Policy 4
Evaluation of Lighting Efficiency Policy and Market Transformation in India
Kishore Kumar, CLASP India

14:00-15:40
Session 5.a Policy 5
Role of Product Registration Systems in Supporting Compliance of Energy Efficiency Policies
Neha Dhingra, CLASP India

14:00-15:40
Session 5.b Appliances
Innovations for Sustainable Off-grid E-Waste Management Across Africa
Monica Wambui and Hannah Blair, CLASP Kenya

Friday June 3rd, 2022

8:30-10:10
Session 7.a Behaviour
Can digital advertising raise consumer awareness of energy efficient domestic appliances? A case study of the #KenyaEnergyLabel campaign
Hannah Blair and Angellah Wekongo, CLASP Kenya

10:45-12:25
Session 8.a Policy 6
Online Energy Labeling Regulation and Compliance in the Growing Online Market
Katriana Dubytz and Lina Kelpsaite, CLASP United States with Marie Baton (CLASP Consultant, Europe)

Bali, Indonesia – At the Minamata Convention on Mercury fourth Conference of Parties (COP4), 137 governments adopted amendments to phase out a major category of fluorescent lighting, but actions were stalled on others. All fluorescent light bulbs contain mercury, a chemical of major public health concern according to the World Health Organization.

In a major win for environmental and human health, the Parties agreed to phase out compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) by 2025. By accelerating the transition to LED lighting, which is more energy-efficient and non-toxic, the move will avoid 26.2 metric tonnes of mercury pollution and 261.5 million metric tonnes CO₂ emissions from 2025-2050, and save people $77.8 billion in lower energy bills.

However, last-minute interventions delayed a decision on linear fluorescent lamps (LFLs), the long tubes commonly found in offices and stores, until Minamata COP5 in November 2023.

“LEDs are a rare silver bullet technology – they’re ready now, they cost half as much to run as fluorescents, and they constitute a double win for climate change mitigation and reducing toxics pollution. We were amazed to see the international cooperation on lighting at COP4. We hope for continued global alignment and momentum at COP5,” said Corinne Schneider, Chief Communications Officer at CLASP.

Over days of intense negotiations, a group of countries came together to agree on phase-out dates for all lighting categories, including the EU, India, Indonesia, Japan, Norway, Pakistan, Switzerland, the US, and many Latin American governments, including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Colombia. However, not all Parties were prepared to move forward, citing the need for more time and additional feasibility analysis.

A phase-out of LFLs by 2027 – the date that most countries rallied around by the end of the week – would have captured significantly greater benefits, avoiding a further 71.7 million metric tonnes of mercury pollution and 2.72 Gt of CO₂ emissions and saving $1.06 trillion in cost savings, according to experts at CLASP.

Last year, 36 governments representing the Africa region submitted a proposal to the Minamata Convention to phase-out virtually all fluorescent lighting by the end of 2025. With many OECD countries banning fluorescents in the coming years in favor of more efficient LEDs, less regulated markets risk becoming dumping grounds for toxic lighting.

“The Africa region recognizes that lighting is crucial in promoting livelihoods. Through our proposal, we took the first step towards a global phase-out of mercury-containing fluorescent lighting,” explained Oumar Cissé, Head of Delegation (Mali) in his opening statement at COP4. “The case to phasing out fluorescent lamps – both CFLs and LFLs – is already justified today from a public health, environmental, technical as well as economic perspective.”

“The original proposal by the Africa region is consistent with our findings that a transition to clean and efficient lighting is feasible everywhere today. The move to phase out CFLs represents a major win, as it will remove toxic, inefficient bulbs from our homes. But keeping LFLs on the market continues to disadvantage our offices, hospitals, schools and childcare centers, needlessly increasing energy costs and risking mercury exposure,” said Ana Maria Carreño, Director of Climate at CLASP.

NGO groups around the world advocated over the past year to address mercury in lighting at COP4. The Climate Action Network launched a petition that garnered over 200 signatures from climate and environmental groups, as well as the private sector, urging governments to take action to phase out fluorescents.

“We are leaving this COP with mixed emotions. Un- and under-regulated markets are increasingly vulnerable to dumping of fluorescents that many countries have already banned due to their toxicity and inefficiency,” said Elena Lymberidi-Settimo, International Co-coordinator of the Zero Mercury Working Group. “The decision to phase out CFLs is one step in the right direction, and we congratulate governments for their efforts to progress the Convention’s promise to ‘Make Mercury History.’ We hope to see action on LFLs at COP5 in November 2023.”

“We are proud of the work the Africa region has done to protect people from toxic lighting products,” said Roger Baro, Vice President of COP4 (Burkina Faso). “We will continue working to phase-out all fluorescent lighting and stop it from causing further mercury pollution in our communities.”

Fluorescent lighting represents about 10% of mercury in all products globally. In the past, fluorescent lamps were promoted as an energy-efficient alternative to incandescent and halogen lamps, and the mercury risks were tolerated as a necessary tradeoff. Today, thanks to major advances in LED technology, mercury-free LED lamps can cost-effectively replace fluorescents in virtually all applications.

In a law published today, the European Commission will phase-out general purpose fluorescent lighting across Europe in 2023. The Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive will ban fluorescents due to their toxicity, citing the widespread availability of cost-effective LED alternatives.

Since 2019, CLASP has conducted market and technology research to demonstrate the feasibility of phasing out fluorescent lighting in Europe. The EU Commission used the evidence prepared by CLASP and partners to determine that a fluorescent phase-out was appropriate.

“As one of the original authors of the RoHS Directive, it gives me great pleasure to see the Commission finally using their authority to take this step,” said Eija-Riitta Korhola, former MEP from Finland. “This is a global first and Europe should be proud, however it is disappointing to see the Commission has not felt the same toxic lighting should also be avoided by people outside of the EU.”

In March, the EU will join delegates from 137 countries – representing more than six billion people – at the UN Minamata Convention on Mercury in Bali to discuss, among other things, whether to ban fluorescent lighting globally. Currently, the Convention has allowances for fluorescent lamps, but proposals submitted by the EU-27 and the African region address these fluorescent exemptions. Notably, the EU proposal is significantly less ambitious than the African proposal.

The EU-27 proposal seeks only to phase-out halophosphate linear fluorescent lamps from the international convention – a product banned in the EU-27 over ten years ago. However, the African region proposal is much closer to existing EU-27 law, removing compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) and all linear fluorescent lamps. While Europe has decided that these common fluorescents targeted in the African proposal are not good enough for EU-citizens, the region still hasn’t made its mind up about voting at the Minamata meeting just one month away.

If the EU fails to vote in favour of the more ambitious African proposal, this decision would be in the interest of protecting exports from two fluorescent lamp factories in Germany and Poland. A new report from CLASP shows that remaining fluorescent lamp manufacturing in Europe will lose 80% of their market by 2023; EU domestic market for fluorescents will be gone and major trade partners are also phasing-out fluorescents through separate regulations.

Regardless of the Minamata vote, there will no longer be a viable market for EU-manufactured fluorescents. However, the report finds that the EU has an economic opportunity to preserve jobs and lighting exports by transitioning domestic fluorescent manufacturing facilities to LED. It is in the best interest of the EU-27 to support the African proposal – to align global with domestic policy and mitigate further harm from mercury emissions.

CLASP is working with the Climate Action Network to circulate a petition calling on the EU-27 and other delegates to the Minamata Convention to support the African Lighting Amendment. If voted in, the proposal would not only eliminate 232 metric tonnes of mercury globally, but would also avoid 3.5 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide emissions from power stations between 2025 and 2050 due to the fact that LEDs are so much more efficient than fluorescent. Click here to review and sign the petition.

Read more about CLASP’s work on RoHS:

• Refurbishing Europe’s Fluorescent Lamp Manufacturing Facilities
• How Many Years Does It Take the European Commission to Change a Toxic Lightbulb?
• Quantifying Lighting Benefits under the RoHS Directive: Calculating the Cost of Lost Time
• Clarifications on Lighting Europe’s Comments to the RoHS Committee
• Assessing Annex III Fluorescent Lamp Exemptions in the Light of Scientific and Technical Progress
• Mercury-Free Alternatives to Certain Fluorescent Lamps: A Report to the European Commission’s Committee on the Restriction of Hazardous Substances

A new study from CLASP shows that the remaining fluorescent lamp manufacturing in Europe will lose 80% of their exports by 2023. Without urgent investment by the European Green Deal Fund or other appropriate funding to convert the factories to LED, these facilities will be closed. The report finds that the EU has an economic opportunity to preserve jobs and lighting exports by transitioning domestic fluorescent manufacturing facilities to LED.

The European Union and trade partners are banning domestic sale of fluorescents, citing failure to comply with efficiency and toxicity policies. As a result, the EU fluorescent export market is expected to reach zero by 2025. The EU Commission can use the Taxonomy Fund investment to transition fluorescent facilities in Germany and Poland to manufacture energy- efficient, high-value-add LED tube manufacturing, resulting in significant employment and climate benefits.

The EU-27 are currently in the process of phasing-out domestic consumption of fluorescent lighting. There are two regulations – one final and one draft – that will eliminate fluorescent lighting by 2023:

• Ecodesign Directive: Commission Regulation (EU) 2019/2020.
• Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive: RoHS is completing its Parliamentary and Council scrutiny period in the coming few months.

Despite ambitious domestic policy to ban inefficient, mercury-containing lighting products, these internal market policy decisions stand in stark contrast to the position the EU-27 took in their proposal to amend lighting products in the Minamata Convention on Mercury. Through the Convention, the EU only proposed to phase-out halophosphate fluorescent lamps – a technology the EU banned in 2011. It is important to note that the Ecodesign and RoHS Directive regulations only apply to the EU’s internal market and thus do not affect exports; however a ban to these same products under Minamata would eliminate exports of those fluorescent lamps.

Europe has two manufacturing facilities for fluorescent lamps which are currently operational – one in Poland and one in Germany. The fluorescent production lines at these lighting factories are limited because the product they produce is no longer fit for purpose. EU domestic market for fluorescents will be gone in 2023 and regional export markets to the European Economic Area, the United States and other countries is also being phased out by separate legislation.

To be viable, converting the facilities in Poland and Germany from T8 and T5 linear fluorescent lamps to T8 and T5 LED retrofit tubes will require EU government investment. This study demonstrates that the fluorescent export market from these countries is already in decline and projected to reach zero around 2025. However, through the EU Taxonomy Fund, there is potential to invest in these facilities and create a long-term, domestic supply of high-quality LED tubes in Europe, produced in Poland and Germany.

The report demonstrates that transitioning the EU’s two linear fluorescent lamp factories to LED production is in line with the EU Taxonomy for Sustainable Activities and could be supported under that framework.

Read the report.

The EEB and CLASP applaud the European Commission for adopting proposals that will phase out all general purpose compact and linear fluorescent lamps (CFL and LFL) containing mercury in the coming two years.

Currently, the EU regulates mercury in light bulbs through the Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive, by allowing mercury use in lighting via an exemption list. CFLs and LFLs have been tolerated so far because of the once limited availability of mercury-free alternatives.

For years the EEB, CLASP, Member States and experts have tirelessly campaigned to end mercury lamps, as there are more efficient, mercury-free Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) widely available on European markets, making fluorescent lamps redundant. In 2019, a study by CLASP and the Swedish Energy Council proved that “91-93% of fluorescent light fixtures in Europe can accept LED retrofits“.

Mercury is a well-documented neurotoxin that causes adverse effects to the developing brain, cardiovascular system, kidneys, and thyroid glands. The World Health Organisation puts mercury in the top ten most problematic chemicals for public health.

The European Commission could have by law removed inefficient and toxic fluorescent lamps from sale as far back as 2018, when its own experts confirmed the legal criteria for a market ban under RoHS were fulfilled. Their availability until the end 2023 is estimated to cost bill-payers over €16.8 million per day in lost efficiency savings for the next 2 years, according to recent NGO estimates.

Michael Scholand, Senior Advisor with CLASP Europe, said, “While the Commission’s decision has been delayed several years, the savings from this measure are still significant and will benefit EU citizens and businesses. Between 2023 and 2035, we calculate a net savings to the EU of €18.2 billion, as well as avoiding 1.8 metric tonnes of mercury from the fluorescent lamps. Furthermore, over 190 TWh of electricity will be saved, avoiding 55 million metric tonnes of CO₂ and contributing to the EU’s COP26 CO₂ reduction targets.”

Elena Lymberidi-Settimo, Policy Manager at the EEB for the Zero Mercury Campaign said, “The European Parliament must now follow through this big step forward and allow rapid final adoption of a ban on these mercury inefficient lamps. At the same time, the EU should follow its commitments set out in the European Green Deal, Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability and Zero Pollution Action Plan and support the African region’s proposal at the next session of the Minamata Convention’s Conference of the Parties in March 2022, to prohibit the manufacture and export of most fluorescent lights by 2025.”

To the regret of NGOs, progress towards phasing out other mercury added lamps, such as high-pressure sodium (orange streetlights) and metal halide lamps, has not yet been made. The amendments to the RoHS Directive will still allow these mercury-containing lamps to remain on the market for the next 3-5 years at a minimum.

Read the article on EEB.org

The Clean Lighting Coalition (CLiC) private sector partners are demonstrating market readiness for a global transition to clean, energy efficient LED lighting by supporting the end of exemptions for mercury-containing fluorescent lighting products under the United Nations Minamata Convention on Mercury.

“The technological advancements in LED lighting over the past decade have far surpassed even the most advanced mercury-containing fluorescent bulbs,” says Professor Shuji Nakamura, Nobel Prize for Physics (2014), Inventor of Blue Light LED. Today, LED retrofit bulbs are readily available across global markets, providing an efficient, safer and mercury-free lighting alternative to fluorescents in virtually all applications.

The Clean Lighting Coalition (CLiC), coordinated by CLASP, brings together LED manufacturers, distributors, associations, and other vital stakeholders to prove market readiness for the global transition to clean, cost-effective LED lighting. CLiC supports the proposed amendment by the Africa region to the Minamata Convention on Mercury to eliminate special exemptions for mercury in general illumination lighting products. Our industry partners provide the strong market push needed to drive the LED shift.

“With the proposed amendment to the Minamata Convention and implementation of national-level regulations to phase-out fluorescent lighting by 2025, countries can accelerate the transition to LED lighting technology to benefit people and the planet,” explains Professor Nakamura.

Spotlight on growing industry partners

“By joining the coalition, industry partners make a strong and unequivocal statement to policy makers that the global transition to clean lighting is possible today,” explains Nyamolo Abagi, the Coalition’s Industry Lead. “The lighting industry has invested heavily and is continuously innovating in the development of clean affordable lighting, making the exemption for mercury containing fluorescent lights under the Minamata Convention unnecessary.”

The Coalition’s growing list of private sector partners consists of 37 companies in 17 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America. This diverse list of partners includes Lumileds, a global lighting solutions company with research, development, and manufacturing facilities that employ approximately 7,000 team members in over 30 countries; Sahasra, an early innovator in local manufacturing of high-quality LEDs in Africa operating a subsidiary of its Indian headquarters in Rwanda; renowned manufacturer Panasonic’s India Anchorbrand, the DesignLights Consortium (DLC), a non-profit energy efficiency organization that evaluates commercial and industrial LED lighting products and maintains a list of over 500,000 products from over 1700 global suppliers for use in North America, and Golchha Group Nepal’s most prominent business conglomerate.

Clean Lighting Coalition industry partners lead the global lighting transition to LED

The Coalition provides an opportunity for the lighting community and private sector partners to publicly commit to supporting the global transition to clean, energy-efficient LED lighting to ensure the following benefits:

1. Human Health – All fluorescent lamps contain mercury, a neurotoxin that is released whenever a bulb breaks. Lamp breakage can occur in homes, schools, child care settings, office and apartment buildings, retail stores, factories, health care, and other facilities. Mercury can cause harmful and long-term health effects; there is no “safe” level of mercury exposure.
2. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – Without intervention, a global transition to clean LED lighting may take years due to the lobbying efforts of fluorescent lamp suppliers. Industry partners are bridging the gap between production and access to prevent under-regulated markets from becoming dumping grounds for outdated, mercury-laden fluorescents banned elsewhere.
3. Climate and Environmental Health – A global transition to LED lighting is low-hanging fruit for climate change mitigation. Such a transition could support efforts to limit global warming to the UN target 1.5 Celsius. Transitioning to energy-efficient LEDs would eliminate 232 tonnes of mercury pollution from the environment, both from the bulbs themselves and avoided burning coal in power plants, and save 3.5 gigatons of CO₂ emissions from power plants (cumulatively between 2025-2050)
4. Circular Economy – LEDs last 2-3 times longer than fluorescent alternatives and do not contain hazardous mercury, making them safer to dispose of at their end of life. Accelerating the adoption of LED products is estimated to reduce global energy consumption by 3%.
5. Economics – LEDs are a cost-effective replacement for fluorescents. Consumers can find replacements for fluorescent bulbs in most countries for the same or slightly more expensive price. Where more expensive, LEDs pay for themselves in a few months from saved electricity costs due to the efficiency benefits.

LED companies and stakeholders can join the Clean Lighting Coalition by signing the CLiC Industry Pledge here or reach out to the CLiC Industry Engagement Lead Nyamolo Abagi (nabagi@cleanlightingcoalition.org).

Appliance energy efficiency is a foundational component of effective climate policy, with well-documented social and economic benefits. A global transition to efficient appliances and equipment would cut more than 1 Gt of carbon emissions per year and save more than USD 200 billion annually on electricity bills.

CLASP’s new report, Pennies per Pound: The Return on Investment from Appliance Efficiency Technical Assistance, adds to the evidence base that appliance energy efficiency is a worthwhile investment, comparing the administrative costs of running such policies and climate impacts to the social cost of carbon.

We calculate the return on investment of appliance efficiency policies and technical assistance efforts. Our findings show appliance energy efficiency is a cost-effective climate mitigation tool.

Findings show appliance efficiency standards and labeling policies deliver major climate benefits for a minimal investment. When considering the benefits of different climate interventions, it is often helpful to compare their costs to the social cost of carbon. In the United States, the social cost of carbon, now USD 51 per ton, is used to determine whether a particular policy intervention is justified from a cost-benefit perspective. Any policy that reduces emissions for less than the social cost of carbon would be justified because the future economic benefits of mitigation outweigh the current costs.

For each of the 10 case studies assessed, the administrative costs required to achieve a one-ton reduction in CO₂e ranged from less than one cent per ton to USD 1 per ton. 

Our analysis provides conclusive evidence that appliance energy efficiency policies are a smart investment for governments, enabling them to maximize climate impacts at a minimal cost.

Governments and implementing agencies are encouraged to read the full report and explore each case study in detail here.