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JANUARY 2022 LIGHTING JOURNAL
Lighting and sustainability: Light on Westminster
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POLITICAL PERSUASION
LP President Fiona Hogan recently addressed an audience in the House of Lords on the theme of ‘Light back better’. Speaking just before November’s COP26 summit in Glasgow as well as the ILP’s lighting and sustainability CPD event (see the previous article), Fiona spoke about the circular economy and the challenges facing the lighting industry in relation to sustainability, climate change, and achieving net zero. ‘The ILP,’ she said, ‘is pledged to put sustainability at the forefront for the lighting industry; to support our members and allies on the issues they may be facing, and to recognise the need for a multilateral approach to change through shared research, training and development support.’ Fiona quoted Gro Harlem Brundtland, who became the first female prime minister of Norway in 1987, describing the need for ‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’.
NEED TO BE REDUCING EMISSIONS
The special Parliamentary event was also addressed by environmental campaigner David Newman, a former executive director of Greenpeace and author of the book Everything is connected [1]. David spoke about global population growth increasing the pressure we put upon ever-more limited resources to feed, clothe, house and give a dignified life to the billions of people on the planet. ‘For you, whose business model is to provide light, vision, sight, security, capacity to read, to learn and educate, you are transforming energy into a service so that you are being impacted by these challenges,’ David said. He suggested that there are no longer any technological barriers to reducing emissions and transforming our production models and materials to a low-carbon economy. David pointed to how the world now has 70,000 organisations established to negotiate issues as diverse as waste, climate, fishing, intellectual property, communications, trade rules and so on. They enable
Sustainability, net zero and lighting’s role in promoting the circular economy were on the agenda at a recent event for the lighting community held at the House of Lords By Chris Rennard
The event at the House of Lords, where speakers included ILP President Fiona Horgan (right)
progress to be made on this important issue. Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Barker, who sponsored and hosted the event, pointed out that she had recently picked up a copy of the 35-page Ecodesign for Energy-Related Products and Energy Information (Lighting Products) Regulations 2021 [2]. These regulations, she suggested, were an example of the kind of legislation rarely looked at in the House of Commons but which had been subject to some scrutiny in the House of Lords. For example, they had been subject to debate in the grand committee of the House of Lords and prior scrutiny by a select committee, which looks at legislation involving detailed regulations. Outgoing ILP Chief Executive Tracey White bade farewell to the Institution and thanked everyone who had helped her make the last few years so successful, especially in the recent difficult times caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. A very warm welcome was also offered at the event to her successor, Justin Blades, who of course took over the reins in November.
OTHER WESTMINSTER NEWS
In other parliament parliamentary news,
[1] David Newman, ‘Everything is connected: understanding a complicated world’, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55315049-everything-is-connected [2] Ecodesign for EnergyRelated Products and Energy Information (Lighting Products) Regulations 2021, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2021/9780348225488 [3] ‘Ten dark sky policies for government’, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Dark Skies, https://appgdarkskies.co.uk/policy-plan [4] Hansard, 6 September 2021, https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2021-09-06/debates/ F0D9FD9E-BF6D-4281-B595-DD93CC6BAE97/EnvironmentBill#contribution-6D76C4EC-04D1-4C3E-BA35-803F4FC6E3EA
www.theilp.org.uk
an All-Party Parliamentary Lighting Group (APPLG) is to be re-established. APPGs bring together parliamentarians from both houses and, as their name suggests, from all parties to discuss issues and invite ministers and others to respond to their concerns. There is already the APPG for Dark Skies, which the ILP liaised with on expert technical advice as part of its recent creation of Ten dark sky policies for the government document [3]. This, as was reported in Lighting Journal on a number of occasions last year, commits to, among other things, designing a national programme of ‘dark sky hours’ where categories of lighting can be either dimmed or turned off completely in consultation with the community, lighting professionals and local police. The issue of dark skies also featured in a recent debate on a proposed amendment to the government’s Environment Bill. The need to be promoting best practice in this area was highlighted in the debate. For example, Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville said: ‘Security lights, which cause the greatest distress when excessive, should be focused on the ground, not pointing upwards towards the night sky.’ [4] Chris Rennard has been a member of the House of Lords since 1999 and is a Liberal Democrat Peer
