Over 200,000 Rwandan households have received Compact Fluorescent Light bulbs (CFLs) in a project financed by the World Bank and carbon credits through the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism.
In a creative bid to reduce energy poverty, Rwanda’s national electricity utility launched a campaign to distribute energy-saving CFLs, effectively using energy efficiency to lower power demand and so it could expand electricity access.
The high adoption rate and new energy-saving behavior by customers has helped end-users save 64 GWh per year, valued at $14.5 million.
The project is also helping the climate, and is the first in Rwanda to earn carbon credits – certified emission reductions from the Clean Development Mechanism. It is expected to reduce approximately 24,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, equivalent to taking 5,000 cars off the road. Read more.
Rawanda’s electricity utility financed its purchase of CFLs through the World Bank electricity access scale-up project and through an advance payment for future carbon credits purchased by the World Bank’s Community Development Carbon Fund.
Under the UN's Clean Development Mechanism, emission reduction projects in developing countries can earn a saleable credit for each tonne of carbon dioxide they reduce or avoid. Thus, the CDM can incentivize investment to combat climate change and assist countries to achieve their sustainable development goals.
Countries, cities, companies, large events and even individuals can use the credits to compensate for their unavoidable greenhouse gas emissions – measure your emissions, reduce what you can and offset what you can’t. In so doing, they benefit the environment and people in developing countries.
Lighting accounts for about 15% of global power consumption and 5% of greenhouse gas emissions. To focus action on this important source of emissions, the United Nations Environment Programme-Global Environment Facility launched its en.lighten initiative to accelerate transition to energy efficient lighting technologies and develop strategies to phase out inefficient incandescent lamps.