Oil's brush with $100 was an exciting New Year's moment, perhaps a more sobering one than we'd wish. But, thanks in part to these market fluctuations, popular awareness of peak oil and the energy uncertainty problem is clearly rising. 2008 promises to be a big year in many ways that will profoundly shape the future.

In this short New Year's blog post I'd just like to take a moment to thank everyone who has been working on planning for climate and energy uncertainty over the last year. From citizens to planners to mayors, everyone has a role -- and in 2007 we saw an exponential increase in the interest and activity on these serious issues.

I also want to remark -- because I've seen so little about it elsewhere -- on a recent resolution by the Council of Edinburgh, Scotland on the Edinburgh: Transition City Initiative. In addition to supporting this important effort (part of the Transition Towns movement that's been expanding rapidly across the UK) the Council also explicitly recognized peak oil:

This Council:
- Notes the long term economic and environmental costs associated with peak oil, and the benefits of future-proofing Edinburgh’s economy against these costs.
- Notes the existing commitment to become a zero-carbon economy by 2050 through, for example, the signing of the Scottish Climate Change declaration.
(The City of Edinburgh Council Notice of Meeting and Agenda, 20 Dec 2007)

If Edinburgh does indeed become a Transition Town, it would be one of the largest in the Transition Network. Congratulations to the Edinburgh Transition City Initiative, and to Councilors Maggie Chapman and Ewan Aitken, who rallied council support of the initiative.

The Post Carbon Cities program currently focuses on local governments in the United States and Canada, otherwise this would be a data point for our local responses table which tracks what we know about what cities have done. Do you have any additions for us?

And finally, a New Year's gift: here's a very watchable video via YouTube that was made with a Global Public Media interview with Robert Hirsh, who wrote the famous "Hirsch report" for the U.S. Department of Energy.

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