In this environmentally conscious mobile world, five of the leading manufacturers (Nokia, LG, Samsung, Motorola and Sony Ericsson) have announced a simple 'star rating' to show how energy efficient their AC chargers are. Four or five star chargers will help you do your bit for the environment, so watch out for the ratings on your next purchase.

The stars relate to the amount of power that a charger continues to draw in idle mode - ie when it is plugged into the wall but not charging a phone. If this power consumption can be cut, a significant amount of power could be saved (Nokia's press release reckon that spread over the current three billion mobile devices out there, this could be equal to two medium sized power stations).

Of course this is a long term effort, and the last thing you should do is run out and change your charger - after all the manufacturing cost in energy is huge, but over time, using the natural replacement cycle, these highly efficient chargers should be in all our households.

Or you could unplug the charger...

The full press release can be found here and Nokia's information page is here.