An Inconvenient Truth: The Reality of "Shoddy" CFLs in Developing Asia, and a Plan for Eliminating Them

My Ton, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Peter du Pont, Danish Energy Management A/S and Joint Graduate School for Energy & Environment

Keywords

Abstract

The adoption of high-quality, energy-saving compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) can provide the Asia region with an important opportunity for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, while also enhancing international collaboration on common clean energy challenges. More than 80% of the world's CFLs are made in China, and while CFLs exported to the U.S. generally meet ENERGY STAR® guidelines, there is no effective regional scheme to certify the quality of CFLs sold throughout Asia. As a result, Asian markets are currently being flooded with shoddy, sub-standard CFL products. Given the current urgency of political commitments being made worldwide, and in Asia, to phase out incandescent lamps without regard to CFL production capacity and quality issues, this situation has the potential makings of a massive policy failure.

This paper will present the readers with:

• A detailed overview of CFL markets and programs in China, India, and the four largest ASEAN nations-Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. These countries represent 96% of the GDP of developing Asia's GDP.
• An assessment of the quality of CFLs currently available in these markets.
• A strategic framework for improving the quality of CFLs sold in Asia, by linking together a number of current and planned initiatives on CFLs and energy-saving lighting, including the Efficient Lighting Initiative (ELI), the International CFL Harmonization Initiative (CFLI) and the Global Environment Facility's (GEF's) Global Lighting Initiative to develop a quality identification system for CFLs sold in Asia.