Incandescent light bulbs: seeing the light at last?

Australia has just joined Cuba, Venezuela, California and New Jersey in phasing out incandescent light bulbs. Read more here. Good news but John Howard still won't join Kyoto and most of the country is still run on coal, but it is steps in the right direction, I guess. Natalie Bennet, Green party activist and serious blogger has a comment on this.

The International Energy Agency have said that if efficient, low-energy lighting were installed all around the world, global energy costs could be cut by nearly a tenth. They go onto say that artificial lighting accounts for 19% of the world's electricity consumption, and without rapid action, the amount of energy used for lighting will be 80 percent higher in 2030. The average American home uses 10 times the artificial light of the average Chinese home, and 30 times that of the average Indian home.

However a closer look at statistics shows that switching light bulbs will eventually save 1% of national electricity use. This measure is no replacement for more substantive, bigger action on say, the coal industry, and what about the people who will be unable to afford the bulbs, and find themselves having to choose between light and food?