SA intends to become the first African country to phase out and then ban all energy-guzzling light bulbs before 2016.

At the 17th Conference of the Parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP17), Energy Minister Dipuo Peters announced to ban incandescent lights in the next five years. It’s part of a partnership between the UN Environment Programme (Unep) and the Phillips and Osram lighting groups.

Although the energy-saving effects have not been quantified, Peters estimated that switching from incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescent lighting or LED bulbs could save enough power to light more than four million homes.

According to the International Energy Agency ,electricity for lighting accounted for close to 20 percent of global electricity production, and about 6 percent of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.

But the figures are likely to be quite different for SA, where most electricity is used by heavy industry, and not for lighting homes and offices.

Nevertheless, Unep estimates that the electricity that would be saved through a global switchover from incandescent bulbs to energy-efficient CFL bulbs would be equivalent to all the electricity used in the UK and Denmark.