OneWorld.net (U.S.)

Nominated by: OneWorld editors

© transitionculture.orgWhile many national governments and world leaders have been slow to address the challenge of climate change, 2006 saw a slew of initiatives launched to take on the issue at the local level. Rob Hopkins and his university students in the Irish town of Kinsale (population 7,000) are demonstrating that massive change is indeed possible.

Hopkins' "Practical Sustainability" students developed a plan to show how Kinsale could transition away from its reliance on fossil fuels. But the class project has evolved into much more since the town council unanimously embraced the so-named Energy Descent Action Plan. 2006 marked Year 1 in the 15-year process, which Ireland's Climate Change agency has called an "Urban Sustainability Model."

Hopkins is now working to build a plan modeled on Kinsale's for the British town of Totnes.

Global leadership will be needed to avert a climate crisis, but individuals like Rob Hopkins and communities like Kinsale are modeling the change the world needs to see in coming years.

Also notable: Kinsale is not the world's only "transition town." The California locality of Willits, for example, launched its efforts in 2004 and connected with Kinsale residents earlier this year to share successes and challenges.

© transitionculture.orgIndeed, many communities across the world are starting to examine what they can do on their own to combat climate change. The College of the Atlantic in the U.S. state of Maine has committed to net-zero carbon emissions by reducing its own greenhouse gas emissions and investing in renewable energy and energy-efficient projects elsewhere to account for those emissions it cannot reduce to zero. And the American Institute of Architecture has joined forces with the U.S. Conference of Mayors to take up the "2030 Challenge," a plan to make all new buildings carbon-neutral by 2030.

More on climate change:
 OneClimate.net: What's Your Part of the Solution?
 Climate Justice News and Comment: Bookmark/RSS It!
 Blogoscan: OneWorld's Carbon Countdown Megablog

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