Transition Culture

22 Feb 2010

Transition Sunshine Coast delivers EDAP

Sonya Wallace (L) and Janet Millington with the Sunshine Coast Energy Descent Action Plan.

Transition Sunshine Coast is very pleased to announce they have delivered their Energy Descent Action Plan (EDAP) to the Sunshine Coast Regional Council. The Sunshine Coast EDAP covers the entire region of the Sunshine Coast located in Queensland, Australia which has a population of 330,000+ and covers an area of more than 3100 square km.

Written by a small yet committed group of locals and facilitated by Transition Sunshine Coast founders Sonya Wallace and Janet Millington, the plan is the first step in creating opportunities for bottom up, top down cooperation between communities and council in response to peak oil and climate change.

“We’re so pleased to be able to deliver our EDAP to a receptive council. We’ve been working hard to build relationships within the community and with local government by raising awareness about the need to prepare for peak oil and the impacts of climate change and it seems that hard work has paid off,” Sonya Wallace said.

“Our progressive council recognises the need for community partnerships and embraces the EDAP and Transition Initiatives to further their sustainability objectives. This living document is now informing council policy,” Janet Millington said. The plan delivers almost 400 positive actions, community projects and doable solutions for individuals, households, neighbourhoods, communities, businesses, regions and governments to take to prepare for a more resilient future.

Following the Transition Town model and the Kinsale EDAP, the Sunshine Coast EDAP identified and considered a wide range of areas that will be affected by energy descent such as;

food supply, water, energy, waste, infrastructure, transport and mobility, built environment and housing, communication, health and wellbeing, formal education systems and reskilling of the community, employment and economics, community governance, land stewardship and biodiversity and emergency preparedness in the context of energy descent.

The group of Sunshine Coast locals who created Australia’s first Energy Descent Action Plan.

The actions were delivered to the region’s Energy Transition Project Reference Group, formed in 2009 by council and with Transition Town representatives on board along with national climate change experts, ASPO representatives, energy experts, councillors and council staff, the group will create an Energy Transition Policy for the region in response to peak oil and climate change to be finalised by June 2010.

Transition Sunshine Coast will now begin the process of delivering the document to Transition Towns within the region and Transition Town Eudlo’s EDAP will be the first of many local EDAPs to be created within the regional one. Transition Sunshine Coast will also endeavour to distribute their EDAP through the international Transition Network and add it to the steadily growing e-library of information available to other groups around the world.

For further information contact transitiontowns@yahoo.com.au