The People’s Transition: Mulranny
The People’s Transition is a participative decision-making model for climate action. It views climate action as an enabler of local development, giving people and communities ownership of the transition to zero-carbon societies. The People’s Transition seeks to deliver a bottom-up approach to transition that builds local wealth, enables local ownership of climate action and empowers local people.
Inside the People’s Transition in Mulranny
The Mulranny People’s Transition began in August 2024. The intention of the project was to listen to and learn from the community’s needs and abilities and then attempt to design a number of climate solutions that would benefit the community and address a number of the main local development priorities. The project had three phases: a mapping phase, a community engagement phase, and a solutions phase.
MAPPING
The mapping phase aimed to build a picture of the community of Mulranny, outlining a geographical scope for the project that represents the people who live there. The key was understanding how people within the community could be included by assessing who was at the greatest risk of being excluded. In addition to demographics and circumstances, the area was studied to understand the distribution of institutions and organisations, such as schools, services and community groups, that play a significant role in the locality.
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
The second phase, Community Engagement, began in the autumn of 2024 following the initial mapping phase. During this stage, the TASC researcher visited the village to meet key local institutions and community members, laying the groundwork for deeper engagement. A broad survey was then conducted to gain an initial understanding of local opinions and ensure the inclusion of under-represented voices. In February 2025, the researcher spent a week in Mulranny meeting locals, conducting interviews, and holding two community conversations that enabled residents to reflect on both the challenges facing the village and their collective strengths. The engagement phase concluded with a collective visioning workshop in April 2025, where community members came together to develop a shared vision for the future, created by the community for the community. Across these activities, participation steadily expanded and representation deepened, providing as true a reflection of the community as possible. Thanks to the commitment of local groups and individuals — including the use of an interpreter to involve the Ukrainian community — we were able to overcome barriers to participation and gather valuable insights into community needs, priorities, and strengths.
CO-CREATION OF SOLUTIONS
Based on the community engagement phase, TASC worked with the community to research viable climate solutions that would address local needs, build on local strengths and capabilities, and respond to the community’s vision for the future. After a process of deliberation, the community distilled their list of ideas down to two community-led solutions for climate justice that they have chosen to move forward with:
- A ‘Share, Care & Repair’ Programme: This first (micro) solution aims to build the capacity to engage with, and benefit from, climate action at a local level in the short to medium term to maintain the momentum of the People’s Transition process so far. The transition to a circular economy is a key element of Ireland’s decarbonisation strategy.
- Recognition of the wider area as a UNESCO Man and Biosphere Reserve: This more ambitious (macro) solution will act as a ‘way-marker’ towards which many of the other solutions co-envisioned during the collective visioning workshops will be realised over time. Biosphere reserve practices are demonstrating the potential to break silos and to connect stakeholders vertically and horizontally – establishing new synergies and providing a more holistic context for dialogue.