en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Watt_Initiative

The sentence is inaccurate on both timing and scope.

• For South Korea, the IEA's policy database says the 2005 e-Standby programme was implemented in stages: a "Voluntary 1 W Policy" from 2005 to 2007, a transition stage in 2008-2009, and only from 2010 a "Mandatory 1W Policy" under which appliances sold in Korea would have to comply with the 1-watt standby limit.
• For Australia, the IEA says Australia released a National Standby Strategy 2002-2012, used voluntary targets in the first instance, and that "in late 2006" the government formally moved to apply the 1 Watt standard. It also says that in 2008 the implementation timing was still under review.

So it is not correct to say that by 2005 both countries had already introduced the 1-watt benchmark in all new electrical devices. Korea had only begun a staged program in 2005, and Australia had not yet formally moved to apply the standard by that year.

California's rules did not impose a universal 0.5-watt limit on external power supplies in July 2007.

California Energy Commission materials show that the earlier standard effective in 2007 distinguished by output size:

• for supplies 0 to <10 watts, the maximum no-load mode consumption was 0.5 watts;
• for supplies 10 to 250 watts, the maximum was 0.75 watts.

The later table for state-regulated external power supplies shows the flat 0.5-watt no-load limit for any output became effective on July 1, 2008.

So the article's sentence is wrong because it attributes the later across-the-board 0.5-watt limit to July 2007, when the 2007 standard was broader and allowed up to 0.75 watts for some supplies.