Incandescent light bulbs have provided light for humans since 1880. At that time, lighting efficiency outperformed traditional oil lamps and candles, but today incandescent light bulbs are one of the least energy-efficient lighting tools for humans. Incandescent bulb with the same illumination, power consumption is more than 5 times that of traditional fluorescent power-saving bulbs (CFL), and its life span is one-third to one-sixth of a fluorescent power-saving light bulb. When more energy-saving and longer-life LED bulbs become popular, incandescent bulbs become a thorn in the flesh.

Under the trend of energy conservation and carbon reduction, many countries have already stipulated the ban on the sale of incandescent light bulbs. Including Taiwan region, they announced they will replace incandescent bulbs in five years in 2008. The incandescent bulbs have been banned in various countries for the past 10 years. Global sales have fallen from 12 billion to 2 billion, but many developing countries are still selling and using incandescent bulbs. Now, the UN has decided not to let incandescent bulbs linger, plans to help developing countries introduce lighting energy efficiency. Completely eliminate the last incandescent bulb.

In the United States, the new lighting energy efficiency regulations will come into effect in 2020, stipulating that the lighting efficiency of the bulb must be above 45 lumens per watt. Under this standard, only the fluorescent energy-saving bulb and the more energy-saving LED bulb can pass, the incandescent bulb will be banned; Europe, which has disabled incandescent bulbs for a long time, will further phase out halogen bulbs in September 2018. However, in developing countries, most of them have no relevant regulations, and although LED bulbs and power-saving bulbs are more economical to use for a long time, consumers in developing countries do not have the concept of total cost of use, only because of incandescence. Buy incandescent bulbs just because they are cheap.

In order to solve this energy waste problem, at the end of May 2018, at the Energy Efficiency Global Forum in Copenhagen, the United Nations energy plan "United for Efficiency (U4E), non-profit organization natural resources The Natural Resources Defense Council (NDRC) jointly introduced modular guidelines for lighting energy efficiency, which are expected to help the world switch to more efficient lighting.

This guide provides to the developing countries who are interested in adopting relevant regulations. Just need " copy and paste" can easily legislate. If you intend to eliminate incandescent bulbs, halogen bulbs and fluorescent power-saving bulbs in one time, directly replace the most energy-saving LED bulbs , you can choose "option A"; if you plan to be more gradual, first eliminate incandescent bulbs and halogen bulbs, and temporarily retain fluorescent power-saving bulbs, only  encourage LED bulbs, you can choose " option B". The “Uniting for Energy Efficiency” program encourages countries to choose the A option as much as possible to create maximum energy efficiency and avoid mercury contamination of fluorescent power-saving bulbs.

At present, the guidelines introduced by the plan are only guidelines for regulating general lighting devices. In the future, they will gradually expand to street lighting, office lighting, industrial lighting and other lighting fields. The Natural Resources Guardian Committee believes that if the current lack of regulations on lighting energy efficiency can adopt this guidance, it will save $18 billion in electricity bills each year and reduce 160 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

The plan for energy efficiency is not only for incandescent bulbs, the next goal is to make similar specifications for air conditioners, because global air-conditioning power is expected to triple in 2050, and air conditioners are more power-hungry than lighting, thus improving air-conditioning energy efficiency is also an urgent goal.