| Meet the Taskforces
Key Task Forces have been created to develop technical guidance and lighting expertise. They will provide best practices and support to developing and emerging countries to promote policy, financial and technical approaches for the phase-out of inefficient lighting.
There are four groups composed of top international experts from different sectors including; governments, private sector, civil society, academia, research organizations and international agencies:
Policy, Regulation and Finance – This Taskforce is divided into three sub-groups: Test Standards; Minimum Energy Performance & Quality Requirements; and, Monitoring, Verification and Enforcement
Consumer and Environmental Protection & Recycling
Off-Grid Lighting
Country Lighting Assessment, Market Data and Analysis
The Policy, Regulation and Finance Taskforce analyses and makes recommendations for policies, regulations and financial incentives to overcome the barriers to enable the transition to efficient lighting. This is the largest of the four en.lighten taskforce and consists of three sub groups: Test Standards; Minimum Energy Performance and Quality Requirements; and, the Monitoring, Verification and Enforcement sub group. They are currently drafting a global lighting policy roadmap to identify existing and future phase-out policy alternatives and timelines, as well as highlighting specific financial mechanisms to aid market transformation towards efficient lighting. The sub-groups are also putting forward a set of minimum quality and performance parameters for CFL and LED products. Mandatory legislation will include enforcing products to comply with minimum energy performance requirements, including quality requirements, which will ultimately lead to a phase-out of inefficient products. This will involve recommendations on standards and labeling activity and compliance aspects. Voluntary agreements are also being developed between parties, resulting in a move of the market towards highly efficient technologies. A Green Public Procurement system for governments to lead by example by only purchasing highly efficient technologies is also being considered. Consumer education is an important initiative for this taskforce which intends to promote the migration from watts to lumens, equivalency (lumen output), and showing consumers how to choose replacement products. The Policy taskforce is also working on various other important projects such as: identifying and communicating successful phase-out case studies, an overview of public data on phase-outs and compilation of actual phase out legislation.
The Consumer, Environmental Protection and Recycling Taskforce develops science-based recommendations for lighting lifecycle issues with a focus on addressing environment, health and safety issues. This group is concentrating on mercury containing lamps and replacements and end-of-life treatment of used lamps. Taskforce members are currently a developing a comprehensive guide for end of life treatment which has been is divided into two areas. The first segment addresses mercury containing lamps and includes information on the use of mercury in compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and requirements for end of life treatment of the same CFLs. For non-mercury containing lamps, a document has been developed to provide guidance for the use of LEDs and the requirements for end of life treatment of LED products. The taskforce is also compiling a summary of global efforts to reduce hazardous substances taking as basis global best practice, such as the European Unions’ Reduction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive and will include en.lighten recommendations on mercury content in CFLs and other lamp types. Additionally, the taskforce is developing information tools on use and breakage of CFLs.
The Off-Grid Lighting Taskforce has been established to develop an effective product quality assurance strategy for off-grid lighting products and to ensure compliance. It has also been created to review best practices and recommend methods to minimize the impact of lighting on the environment and health. Most recently, the Taskforce has been actively involved in mapping the various off-grid initiatives to determine any overlap and areas that would benefit from improved coordination and cooperation. They are making policy and harmonized quality recommendations for governments of developing nations for the regulation of off-grid lighting initiatives. A baseline study will also be conducted on the net environmental impact of modern off-grid lighting versus kerosene lighting and low quality battery operated lighting products. The Taskforce is also considering potential end of life approaches for off-grid lighting products.
The Country Lighting Assessments, Market Data and Analysis Taskforce undertook a series of Country Lighting Assessments (CLAs) aimed at providing estimates of the effect of a shift from inefficient to energy efficient lighting technologies in a variety of countries. For each of countries assessed, the CLAs estimate the benefits of replacing incandescent lamps based on a 130 year old technology, with efficient compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs). These results will serve to prompt governments to engage in national or regional market transformation activities. The Taskforce reviews country and global lighting markets, data and standards and thus, can estimate the energy, CO2 and financial savings per country associated with a move to efficient lighting.
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