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Globally, 77 billion litres of kerosene worth 30 billion euros is used for lighting annually, which leads to emission of 190 million tonnes of carbon, which adds to climate change.
"We don't want to leave the market to oil producers," Wolfgang Gregor, chief sustainability officer of Osram, said on the opening day of the Business for Environment Summit in Singapore.
Lighting accounts for 19 per cent of the total use of electricity in the world, equal to the combined consumption of India and China. "We can reduce the use of electricity by a third by switching to compact fluorescent lights (CFLs)," Gregor said.
The summit, titled 'Business & Markets in a Climate of Change', is the second such event in Singapore, organised by the UN Environment Programme and the UN Global Compact.
It awards 'Champions of the Earth' prizes to distinguished leaders who have contributed to protecting the environment and is being attended by 500 participants from over 30 countries.
There are still 15 billion "old" incandescent bulbs left in the world which have been around for 150 years and need to be phased out, Gregor says. In the European Union, this is expected to occur in 10 years. In contrast, the production capacity of CFLs is only 2 billion at present.
There are 1.6 billion people in the world who have to make do without electricity. Osram has started "solar hubs" in villages in India, Kenya and Uganda to demonstrate how renewable energies can solve this problem.
By helping developing countries switch over to CFLs, it has taken advantage of the Clean Development Mechanism under the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases to claim certified reduction certificates for reducing carbon emissions. It has converted some 2 million bulbs in these countries to CFLs.
Dow Chemical Company, which operates in 35 countries, yesterday cited how it generated $5 billion worth of savings by spending $1 billion on reducing its energy consumption.
The use of its product, styrofoam, in building materials could act as an insulation and reduce the demand for heating and cooling drastically, said the company, which was working on introducing solar photovoltaic technology in building materials which would obviate the need for solar panels.
It believed that by partnering governments, there were a range of measures that could help reduce energy consumption equivalent to the entire oil imported from the Gulf every year, it said.
Dow has partnered an NGO, World Health International, by providing $20-million for using its plastic products to supply clean drinking water in Indian villages. It has donated 2 million tonnes of plastic to another US-based NGO, International Aid, for drinking water in developing countries.
Dow is also adopting a new business model of "chemical leasing" for hazardous chemicals, for instance, the cleaning agents in personal computers (PCs). Dow's engineers are developing special containers for collecting the chemical after use without contaminating the environment.
To a question about Dow's responsibility for the clean-up of the site of the pesticide plant in Bhopal as the company has bought Union Carbide, Adam Muellerweiss, the public affairs director, Sustainability, said: "We can't afford such an accident again. However, we didn't own or operate this plant; the facility is now in the hands of the Indian government."
He clarified that Dow has stopped making napalm and Agent Orange, which were used as chemical weapons by the US government in the war against Vietnam.
Darryl D'Monte, Chairperson, Forum of Environmental Journalists of India (FEJI) & International Federation of Environmental Journalists (IFEJ).
