Transition Towns: Planning for a Low Energy Future

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TransitionTowns Planning for a Low Energy Future
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Overview

• Background Climate Change and Peak Oil
• Community Responses UK, NZ, worldwide
• Energy Descent Planning
• Transition Towns
• Relocalisation
• Planning for Low Energy Hawkes Bay

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Climate Change

• 81 of New Zealanders - climate change is real
• 55- Government not doing enough
• Last Ice Age 5 degrees colder
• This century 5 degree change?

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Discovery peaked 40 years ago
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• So What??

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Technofix?

• solar panels, windmills, hydrogen fuel cells,
  biodiesel, nuclear power plants - all need oil to
  produce
• all electrical devices need silver, copper,
  and/or platinum
• nuclear energy requires uranium
• feedstock for biofuels such as biodiesel and
  ethanol - grown using oil-powered industrial
  agriculture
• ie. the so called "alternatives" to oil are
  actually "derivatives" of oil!

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Finance

• Oil is running out the climate is changing at
  a potentially catastrophic rate..
• Almost daily, new evidence is emerging that. . .
  growth may be coming to an end.
• Since our entire financial order interest
  rates, pension funds, insurance, stock markets
  is predicated on growth, the social and economic
  consequences may be cataclysmic.
• London Times, October 2005

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Doom and Gloom?
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Rob Hopkins
I have a cunning plan!
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Energy Descent Action Plan (EDAP)
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• Permaculture is
• a design system for sustainable human
  habitats.
• about meeting human needs in a way which
  enhances the environment
• functional design maximises productivity,
  minimises effort
• based on ethics of earth care, people care, fair
  share

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Kinsale 2021 EDAP Topics covered

• Food
• Youth community
• Education
• Housing
• Economy livelihoods

• Health
• Tourism
• Transport
• Waste
• Energy

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Transition Town Totnes
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Awareness Raising Networking Involving
community groups Working with business
Engaging existing practioners Networking with
local council

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Research
Medicine and Health Arts Food Energy Economics Li
aison with Local Government Heart and Soul the
psychology of change Education Housing
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Honouring the Elders Oral History Interviews..
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Facilitating The Great Reskilling
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Working with Local Government
Notice of Motion This council supports the
efforts of the not-for-profit company Transition
Design in its initiative to act as Process
Leaders in Kinsales transition to a lower
energy future and in developing the concept of a
Transition Town i.e. a town making the
transition from fossil-fuel dependency to a state
of energy independence.
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Action Community Projects
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Outcomes after 4 months

• Local Food Directory
• The Totnes Renewable Energy Supply Company
  (TRESCO)
• World Café afternoon for Council representatives
• Seedy Sunday
• Workshop with estate landowners
• Lending Library

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The Totnes Pound
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Transition Townsthe buzz spreads!

• Totnes Bristol
• Kinsale Forest Row
• Ivybridge Brixton
• Falmouth Mayfield
• Moretonhampstead Glastonbury
• Lewes Lostwithiel
• Stroud Forest of Dean
• Ashburton Nottingham
• Penwith Wrington
• Ottery St. Mary BrightonHove
• Portobello

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Experience of Cuba

• The Power of Community How Cuba Survived Peak
  Oil
• Based largely on Permaculture Design

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Food - Urban Gardens in Cuba

• Downtown Havana

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Rooftop Gardening in Havana
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Whistler

• 1993 - Official Community Plan (OCP) to reduce
  the environmental and social impact of town
  development
• 2000 adopted The Natural Step framework (TNS)
• 2002 Whistler 2002 Charting a Course for the
  Future
• Community, business school resource toolkits
• Whistler. Its our future. community visioning
  process
• 2004 Whistler2020 - Comprehensive
  Sustainability Plan
• Community task forces - action plans to implement
  strategy
• 2005 - over 200 actions recommended and 144
  accepted
• 79.9 either achieved full/partial outcome or in
  progress
• less than 7 were not initiated at all

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Hampden- Moeraki- Waianakarua Energy Future
ForumVision

• a more secure, self-reliant and vibrant
  community, better prepared to sustain the effects
  of a decline in fossil fuel availability and meet
  the essential needs of future generations.

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• Talks by local experts
• Peak Oil
• Alternatives to Fossil Fuels
• What can the community do to reduce dependence on
  fossil fuels?
• Anton Oliver - Global Ecological Issues

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Actions

• Improving skills and knowledge base through
  education
• Bulk purchase of solar panels
• Virtually interest-free loans - solar panels
  stormwater collection
• Setting up a local market
• Biofuel initiatives
• Vision formally adopted as part of the Waitaki
• District Councils Long Term Council Community
  Plan

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Others around NZ

• Waitakere City
• Sustainable Wanaka
• Golden Bay
• Nelson - NZ Assoc of Peak Oil
• Environment Centre Network

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• Relocalize.net

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Summary

• Fossil fuels are finite and will be less
  available and more expensive
• Our community will therefore be more isolated
• We must therefore be more self-reliant as a
  community

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Still a Peak Oil Climate Change Sceptic?
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• Health Lifestyle
• Healthier food
• An emphasis on quality over quantity
• More active lifestyles
• Reducing over-consumption
• Economy
• Planning for future makes economic sense
• Revitilising local economy
• Reducing dependence on China
• Greater self-reliance/resilience

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• Community
• Greater self-reliance/resilience
• The re-emergence of local identity
• A meaningful common goal and sense of community
• Environment
• Reduction in pollution
• Reforestation
• Soil enhancement
• Increase in biodiversity

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Questions for Hawkes Bay

• How will we experience oil shortfall in our
  community?
• What does our community have that will work for
  us in a future with less oil?
• What can we do as a community to prepare and
  respond?

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• Be part of
• the solution!

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• www.transitionculture.org
• www.transitiontowns.org
• www.relocalize.net