The campaign is part of Greenpeace’s larger objective to fight global warming through the use of environment-friendly technologies. Greenpeace hopes that the campaign will create awareness among the citizens on the adverse impact of climate changes and encourage them to switch to greener technologies.

According to Gerd Leipold, executive director of Greenpeace International, switching to energy efficient measures is the only credible and sustainable way to reduce the dependence on capacity additions. Mr Leipold spoke to ET during his visit to Mumbai to fine-tune the campaign. ‘Switch for Mumbai’ will project Maharashtra, which is facing a shortfall of 4,500mw during peak hours, as a fit case for energy saving practices.

“In Mumbai, for instance, switching to two energy-efficient CFL (compact fluorescent lighting) bulbs per household would more than make up for the shortfall of 250mw. A moderate estimate suggests that even if all Mumbai households are given two CFL bulbs free-of-cost by the government, the price would be only one-fifth of what is being invested in thermal power plants,” said Greenpeace India executive director G Ananthapadmanabhan.

Greenpeace hopes to win a commitment from the state government as well as private players in the power sector to propagate the use of CFL lamps in Mumbai. “A coastal city like Mumbai is going to experience climate changes as a result of global warming of intensity much greater than other cities. The citizens, industry, and the power utilities need to change their mind-set,” Mr Ananthapadmanabhan said.

Global warming, or the rise in the earth’s average temperature, is caused by emissions of greenhouse gases, the worst of them being carbon dioxide (Co2). “The largest emitters of Co2 are thermal power plants. Global warming leads to erratic shifts in weather patterns and causes lower farm yields, species extinction, drastic increase of diseases and floods. India and China are the two key countries in experiencing these climatic changes,” said Mr Leipold.

Greenpeace estimates that much of the “dirty energy” generated by thermal power plants is not used efficiently. “So there is a strong case for energy-efficient practices as against capacity additions through thermal plants,” he added.