Governments including China, India, the US and companies such as Ikea are backing a plan to have 10bn super efficient light bulbs fitted worldwide to tackle the 5% of global emissions caused by lighting.

The public-private partnership is expected to see India sell 0.8bn LED bulbs by 2019 and China committing to sell 5bn by 2018.

Ikea, the Swedish furniture multinational, committed to sell 500m LED bulbs to its customers by 2020.

The Swedish energy minister, Ibrahim Baylan, told the Guardian that the scheme had been an outgrowth of innovations in the lighting sector this decade.

“New lighting creates new opportunities in our societies with multiple benefits,” he said. “Sweden wants to support the transition to universal access of high-efficient and high-quality lighting, which is why we join this race with other Clean Energy Ministerial partners to realise the efficiency potential that exists in Sweden and the rest of the world.”

The US energy secretary, Ernest Moniz, will also be endorsing the project which is backed by 13 major economies – including Australia, the UK and Mexico – and the European commission.

Lighting accounts for around 15% of the world’s electricity consumption, more than the combined output of all the planet’s nuclear plants.



That demand is set to rise 50% by 2030 as the world’s population grows, urbanisation increases and 1.2 billion people who currently lack access to energy grids get connected.

Equally though, an overnight transition to LED lighting could save about 735m tonnes of carbon emissions, which is enough to displace nearly 250 coal-fired power plants around the world.

The initiative is thus being presented as a race against time.

“If we have 20 years of the global carbon budget left, we need to create products that are fantastically energy efficient and roll them out to scale very fast,” said Steve Howard, Ikea’s chief sustainability officer.

Ikea converted its entire lighting range to LEDs in September, and says that it expects its contribution to the project to save enough energy to power half a million homes each year.

The Swedish firm’s LED sales promotion strategy currently includes giving a euro to pay for sustainable lighting for refugees, each time an LED is bought.

High Street LED prices have fallen by four-fifths since 2012, but the lights are still more than twice the price of their competitors, even if they use 85% less electricity and can last for up to 20 years.

Howard said: “A year or two ago, people were still used to paying 50p for a lightbulb so they didn’t get the value proposition. But 18 months ago, we suddenly got to the price point where there was a massive response from our customers and sales took off.”

Industry leaders such as Philips, Osram, Cree and Enervee have also made private commitments to back the blueprint for affordable but climate-friendly illumination.

The US has seen a six-fold increase in LED home lighting in just two years, saving Americans $1.4bn in energy bills last year alone, according to the country’s Department of Energy.

