The idea of Transition was first put into practice in Kinsale (Cork, Ireland). After learning about the problem of Peak Oil, permaculture teacher Rob Hopkins developed a project for his permaculture students, challenging them with imagining how their lives would change in response to the end of cheap oil and climate change. The project was so successful the local council and community in Kinsale got fully behind the idea and they developed the first Energy Descent Action Plan (EDAP). Rob Hopkins subsequently moved back home to the town of Totnes in Devon, where he produced his MSc thesis: 'Energy Descent Pathways' (which outlines the methodology for the Transition Movement) and kicked off Totnes Transition Town - the UK's first Transition initiative.

As defined on the Transition website, a Transition Initiative is a community working together to look Peak Oil and Climate Change squarely in the eye and address this BIG question:

"for all those aspects of life that this community needs in order to sustain itself and thrive, how do we significantly increase resilience (to mitigate the effects of Peak Oil) and drastically reduce carbon emissions (to mitigate the effects of Climate Change)?"

The resulting coordinated range of projects across all these areas of life leads to a collectively designed energy descent pathway. The community also recognises two crucial points:

• that we used immense amounts of creativity, ingenuity and adaptability on the way up the energy upslope, and that there's no reason for us not to do the same on the downslope.


• if we collectively plan and act early enough there's every likelihood that we can create a way of living that's significantly more connected, more vibrant and more in touch with our environment than the oil-addicted treadmill that we find ourselves on today.

There are already over 70 'official' Transition Initiatives in the UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand; with many more mulling over the concept. Communities close to us who have already begun moving towards planning for energy descent are Bristol, Llandeilo, Chepstow and the Forest of Dean. Abergavenny, Aberystwyth, Brecon and Lampeter are just some of the 44 towns in Wales that, like Cardiff, are embarking on the Transition journey.