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Message from Mr. Achim Steiner, UN Undersecretary General and UNEP Executive Director
 en.lighten is one of the most remarkable initiatives that has emerged in the context of international climate change efforts because it is a partnership among international agencies - funded by the Global Environment Facility, implemented through the United Nations Environment Program and with private partners Philips, Osram and the National Lighting Test Centre. It also involves a large number of countries, public interest groups and United Nations agencies coming together to help countries make the transition into a more energy-efficient lighting era.
Our role as a partnership is to assist countries both develop the policy templates and practical measures on how to phase-out inefficient, older lighting technologies and bring new, more efficient lighting technology into the mass market, both at the consumer level and in the commercial and industrial sectors.
The en.lighten initiative has set the target to achieve the global phase-out of inefficient incandescent lighting by the year 2016. It is an ambitious goal, but it is already happening in many parts of the world. We believe that with the effort that en.lighten has made in terms of advising governments, sharing lessons learned and policy measures, success could actually be achieved by 2016. This would be a relatively low investment for countries that would see an enormous return, nationally and internationally.
More and more developing countries are joining the Global Efficient Lighting Partnership Program which has been established to support countries to design and implement national inefficient lighting phase-out strategies adapted to specific country conditions and requirements. en.lighten unveiled the program as an opportunity for countries around the world to act to achieve a coordinated global transition to efficient lighting.
As part of the program, en.lighten will provide targeted technical expertise through its Centre of Excellence, to support the development of phase-out policies to maximize the time and resources required to implement viable national lighting strategies and coordinated regional activities.
I would like to invite all countries and organizations that are addressing the climate change challenge by improving energy efficiency and access to join us in this important endeavour.
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