The International Year of Light (IYL2015), to be soon established by the United Nations for 2015, is a global initiative which will highlight to the citizens of the world the importance of light and optical technologies in their lives, for their futures, and for the sustainable development of society. Undoubtedly, many applications of light have revolutionized society through medicine, communications, entertainment and culture. In addition, industries based on light are major economic drivers, and light-based technologies directly respond to the needs of humankind by improving access to information, promoting green technology and then sustainable development, increasing societal health and well-being, and furthering environmental remediation by saving energy and reducing the impact of global warming. All these significantly contribute to addressing the post-2015 development agenda. It is therefore worthwhile to support the IYL2015 activities in view of the global efforts to improve the public understanding of how light and light-based technologies touch the daily lives of everybody, and are central to the future development of the global society.

To contribute to the achievement of the aforementioned overall objective, the IYL2015 will consist of coordinated activities on national, regional and international levels, in which Philips Lighting could play a major role. The IYL2015 will be the occasion for the International Basic Sciences of UNESCO to extend its partnerships in view of strengthening, through educational and capacity-building activities, the thematic below:

1. To highlight the importance of research in the fundamental science of light and its applications;
2. To encourage studies and careers in the physics of light;
3. To boost the use, and further development, of light-based technologies;
4. To promote poor people’s access to information;
5. To inform decision makers on the needs to invest on light-based green technology;
6. To bolster Education for Sustainable Development.

Concrete Proposals:

• UNESCO-Philips Lighting Programme of implanting and promotion of lighting technology in schools members of the UNESCO Associated Schools Network (ASPnet), which is a global network of 9566 educational institutions in 180 different countries over the world committed to fostering critical thinking, learning through dialogue, mutual respect and solidarity. This UNESCO-Philips Lighting scheme could consists in lectures on energy-saving lighting, and available and future lighting technologies, contributing to reduce the impact of global warming and furthering environmental remediation. The lectures could be accompanied by provision of a high quality and sustainable lighting installation optimizing the learning environment in the school.
• UNESCO-Philips Lighting grant scheme for talented young students from Africa to study in other developing counties, with the objective to enhance regional capacity to harness green lighting technologies contributing to address today’s global sustainable development challenges. This scheme will also improve South-South collaboration and cooperation, as well as transfer and sharing of technology and knowledge.
• UNESCO-Philips traveling Labs for talented university students showcasing hands-on experiments in optics and photonics. These traveling labs using low-cost materials in order to be replicated easily in developing countries is an occasion for Philips Lighting to strengthen UNESCO’s core mandate in science capacity-building, especially in Africa, as well as bolstering its presence in new emerging market and economies.
• UNESCO-Philips Lighting brochure/courier focusing on the role of lighting in the field of sustainable development and energy efficiency to the intention of 195 Member states represented within UNESCO.