August 2012: Uruguay has launched a national project for energy efficient lighting, supported by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the Basel Coordinating Center-Stockholm Convention Regional Center (BCCC-SCRC) for Latin America and the Caribbean, the en.lighten Initiative, and the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

The launch workshop for the “Efficient and Sustainable Lighting” project was organized by the National Energy Directorate (DNE), held from 7-8 August 2012 in Montevideo, Uruguay, and attended by national environment, energy, industry, housing and standards-setting officials, as well as independent experts and representatives from UNEP, BCCC-SCRC, UNIDO, and interested nongovernmental organizations.

The Uruguayan launch is the first of several national projects planned by the en.ighten Initiative created by UNEP in 2009 and supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

The Uruguayan project intends to develop a diagnostic of the lighting situation in the country, followed by the development of a national policy on efficient and sustainable lighting that takes into account not only energy efficiency, but also such environmental considerations as the waste issues posed by the use of fluorescent lamps containing mercury.

Among other things, participants in the launch workshop examined successful lighting initiatives in other countries, the current state of Uruguay’s lighting market and use, an analysis of the mercury content of fluorescent lamps used and sold in the country, options in Uruguay for the safe handling, disposal and/or destruction of mercury, Uruguay’s energy efficiency labeling program and the role of lighting energy efficiency standards, and issues involved in the control, certification and inspection of lighting products. [Launch workshop agenda and presentations (in Spanish)]