Remember when Paul Hogan was popular and everyone knew what a Vegemite sandwich was?

Back in February, Australia announced that it would phase out the sale of incandescent light bulbs by 2010. The bulbs, which are foolishly inefficient, will be pulled from the market in order to allow compact fluorescent (CFLs) bulbs and LEDs to take over. While more expensive, these newer bulbs use about one-fourth the electricity of their predecessors and last 10 times as long.

As it turns out, Australia may once again be an international trendsetter.

A month after the announcement European leaders agreed to ban old-style bulbs, calling upon the European Commission to begin work on efficiency standards. Then, Canada unveiled plans to phase out incandescent bulbs by 2012. New Zealand, it seems, may follow suit as well.

So far in the U.S., most of the activity on the CFL front has taken place at the state level and among public interest groups and corporations. Whether federal lawmakers will ever catch “Aussie fever” remains to be seen.