TRANSITION TOWNS HISTORY

In response to converging challenges of an unravelling global economy, peak oil and climate change, some pioneering communities in the UK, Ireland and beyond are adopting the TRANSITION PROCESS. These initiatives are taking an integrated and inclusive approach to increase our ability to look after ourselves into the long term and to adapt to the shocks that energy, food, economic and climate crises will bring.

Networks have been established in the UK, Ireland, Australia, Japan and most recently in the United States. The role of these TRANSITION NETWORKS is to accelerate change through inspiring, encouraging, and supporting communities as they consider how they will build resilience in the face of these challenges.

The last step in the Transition process is to ‘Create an Energy Descent Action Plan EDAP’. This plan is the culmination of the learning, the networking and the work done so far by a Transition Initiative’s Activities. Each of the initiative’s working groups will have been developing actions to build resilience; it is these actions that form the Energy Descent Action Plan.

The Transition movement was started in Ireland by Rob Hobkins a permaculture teacher in Kinsale, Co Cork. (Permaculture is a design system based on ecological principles which provides the organising framework for implementing a permanent or sustainable culture.) When Rob showed “The end of suburbia” to his students. They were shocked at the sudden realisation of the world they could leave their children and they decided to do something about it. As part of their course work they put together the “Kinsale – Energy Decent Action Plan”.

It was a vision of where Kinsale would or could would be in 2021. Rob then moved to Totnes in England where he set up Transition Totnes, which has become the leading example of the transition movement. From here the Transition movement has evolved into a community of hundreds of initiatives including countries such as Ireland, UK, Wales, Scotland, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan, New Zealand and even the USA. The Transition movement has mushroomed in the last few years.