By Gabrielle Wade
18 November 2008 [MEDIAGLOBAL]: The Lebanese Center for Energy Conservation Project (LCECP), a joint project of The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Lebanese Ministry of Energy and Water, Wednesday launched a national campaign to encourage locals to use energy-efficient bulbs.
The campaign, called the “National Campaign for Energy Efficiency Lamps” or “CFL (compact fluorescent light bulb) campaign” for short, aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and the national energy bill. It is part of Lebanon’s national strategy to encourage the use of energy-efficient electrical appliances.
Ministry of Energy and Water Marketing and Information Coordinator Rola Khazen told MediaGlobal, “The campaign is part of a phasing out strategy for the regular light bulb, which will be adopted by the Ministry of Energy and Water. The strategy includes a number of regulatory measures that will encourage the use of CFL in Lebanon.”
In the past, LCECP has had a number of successful campaigns, such as the energy-saving campaign “Some turn offs do save” and the solar energy campaign “Don’t burn your money to heat water, solar energy is for free.” It has also created an energy audit campaign, a school awareness campaign, and a “Saving energy” newsletter.
The newest campaign’s slogan is, “Better than carrying the weight of your bill,” and it aims to influence people to use CFLs, which it argues can save users 80 per cent on their lighting bills and last nine to ten times longer than traditional light bulbs.
All LCECP campaigns feature two characters, Lilianne Nemri and Mounther Baalbaki, who are “famous and likened to Lebanese comedians,” according to Khazen, and the newest campaign is no different.
“The campaign consists of a 30 second TV commercial, which will be aired on all Lebanese TV stations, a 30 second radio commercial on all radio stations, [a] press ad in all dailies, and a magazine and a bus wrap that will circulate in Beirut for a period of one month on three different routes,” said Khazen.
Before the official launch of the campaign, LCECP implemented various pilot projects in which regular bulbs were replaced with CFL bulbs in households in different Lebanese villages. The results were that CFL users were able to save about 13 per cent on their total household energy bills.
UNDP Resident Representative Marta Ruedas said at the launch of the campaign, “These results show that a change for the better is possible – a change in how much the country and your family spends on electricity, and at the same time a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. That is why we feel sure that the awareness campaign for CFL bulbs we are launching here today will show results and will help pave the way for additional future collaboration with the institutions in Lebanon that can and will make a positive impact.”
Khazen explained that the campaign is already having an impact and the media are featuring stories about the success of the campaign.
Ruedas said, “With carbon dioxide emissions causing natural disasters around the world such as hurricanes and melting ice caps it may sound simplistic that a small light bulb could be beneficial, but it can.”