Sir Crispin Tickell

Sir Crispin Tickell has long been a pioneer in linking environmental and in particular climate change to the worlds of politics and business. For many years he was an informal adviser on such issues to successive British Prime Ministers. Until recently he was Director of the Policy Foresight Programme at the James Martin 21st Century School at Oxford University. He is associated with several other British universities as well as universities in the United States.

Most of his career was in the Diplomatic Service. He was Chef de Cabinet to the President of the European Commission (1977-80); Ambassador to Mexico (1981-83); Permanent Secretary of the Overseas Development Administration (now DFID) (1984-87); and British Permanent Representative to the United Nations (1987-90).

He then became Warden of Green College, Oxford (1990-97), and set up the Green College Centre for Environmental Policy and Understanding, which later became the Policy Foresight Programme at the James Martin School. Among other things he was President of the Royal Geographical Society (1990-93); Chairman of the Board of the Climate Institute of Washington DC (1990-2002); Convenor of the Government Panel on Sustainable Development (1994-2000); a Trustee of the Baring Foundation (1992-2002); Chairman of the Advisory Committee on the Darwin Initiative for the Survival of Species (1992-99); a member of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (1992-2006); Chancellor of the University of Kent (1996-2006); Inaugural Senior Visiting Fellow at the Harvard University Center for the Environment (2002-03); and Adviser At Large to the President of Arizona State University from 2002. Since 2007 he has been President of Tree Aid. He also has business interests, including being Director (Non Executive) of IBM (UK) (1990-95).

He is author of Climate Change and World Affairs (1977 and 1986) and Mary Anning of Lyme Regis (1996). He has contributed to many books on environmental issues (including human population problems, resource depletion and conservation of biodiversity). He was a member of two Government Task Forces: one on Urban Regeneration, the other on Potentially Hazardous Near Earth Objects (a minor planet no. 5971 has been named after him). He has received many honours and distinctions. His interests go wide: they range from international governance and economics to climate, pre-Columbian and African art, and the early history and future of the Earth.
Detail (July 2010)
Main Current Appointments

Director of the Policy Foresight Programme associated with James Martin 21st School, Oxford University since 2009.
Chairman of the Trustees of the St Andrew’s Prize for the Environment since 1998
Advisor at Large to the President of Arizona State University since 2004
President of the South East Climate Change Partnership since 2005
Member of the Council of the ASU Global Institute of Sustainability since 2007.

Career

Born: 25 August 1930
Educated at Westminster School (King’s Scholar); and Christ Church, Oxford (Hinchliffe & Hon Scholar); 1st Class Honours Modern History 1952; Gladstone Memorial Exhibitioner 1952.
Married:

Chloe Gunn 1954. Marriage dissolved 1976. Two sons, one daughter.
Penelope Thorne Thorne 1977.

Served with Coldstream Guards (2nd Lieutenant) 1952 – 1954
Joined British Diplomatic Service 1954 and served at:

Foreign Office, 1954 – 1955
British Embassy The Hague, 1955 – 1958
British Embassy Mexico, 1958 – 1961
Foreign Office (Planning Staff), 1961 – 1964
British Embassy Paris, 1964 – 1970
Private Secretary to successive Chancellors of the Duchy of Lancaster as Ministers responsible for the negotiations for British entry into the European Community, 1970 – 1972.
Head of Western Organizations Department, FCO 1972 – 1975 (hence responsible for NATO matters, European security problems including the CSCE, and politico-military affairs generally)
Fellow at the Center for International Affairs, Harvard University, 1975 – 1976
Chef de Cabinet to the President of the European Commission, 1977 – 1981
Visiting Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, 1981
British Ambassador to Mexico, 1981 – 1983
Deputy Under-Secretary of State (Economic), Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 1983 – 1984
Permanent Secretary, Overseas Development Administration, 1984 – 1987
British Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Permanent Representative on the Security Council, 1987 – 1990.

Warden of Green College, Oxford, 1990 – 1997
President of the Royal Geographical Society 1990 – 1993, Vice-President 1993 – 2002, Hon Vice President 2002
President of the National Society for Clean Air and Environmental Protection 1997 – 1999
President of the Marine Biological Association 1990-2001, and Vice President since 2001
President of the South East England Climate Change Partnership since 2005
Chairman of the Board of the Climate Institute of Washington DC 1990 – 2002, and Chairman Emeritus since 2002
Convenor of the Government Panel on Sustainable Development 1994 – 2000
Chairman of the Gaia Society 1998 – 2001
Chairman of the Gaia Special Interest Group of the Geological Society of London since 2000
Chairman of the International Institute for Environment and Development 1990 – 1994
Chairman of Earthwatch Europe 1991-1997
Chairman of the Advisory Committee on the Darwin Initiative for the Survival of Species 1992 – 1999
Chairman of the Advisory Committee on the Environment (ACE) of the International Council for Science 1999 – 2004
Senior Inaugural Visiting Fellow at Harvard University Center for the Environment 2002 – 2003.
Fellow of the Geological Society of London 2000 – and Chairman of the Gaia Special Interest Group 2000 –
Fellow of the Linnean Society of London 2008 –
Fellow of the James Martin 21st Century School, Oxford University and member of its Advisory Council 2009 –

Publications:

Climatic Change and World Affairs, Harvard University 1977; Pergamon Press 1978. Revised edition Harvard University and University Press of America 1986.
Mary Anning of Lyme Regis, Lyme Regis Museum 1996, 1998 & 2003
Also contributor to many books & papers, including:

The Evacuees, edited by B.S. Johnson, 1968
Life After Death, edited by Robin Denniston, 1976
The United Kingdom -The United Nations, edited by Erik Jensen and Thomas Fisher, 1990
Sustaining Earth: Response to the Environmental Threats, edited by David J.R. Angell, Justyn D. Comer, Matthew L.N. Wilkinson, 1990
Greenhouse Glasnost: edited by Robert Redford, 1990
Sir Francis Galton: edited by Milo Keynes, 1991
Monitoring the Environment: edited by Bryan Cartledge, 1992
Threats Without Enemies: edited by Gwyn Prins, 1993
Sustainable Development and the Energy Industries: edited by Nicola Steen 1994
Science for the Earth: edited by Tom Wakeford & Martin Walters 1995
The Changing World: edited by Patricia Fara, Peter Gathercole and Ronald Laskey 1996
Remaking the Landscape: edited by Jennifer Jenkins 2002
Managing the Earth: edited by James C. Briden & Thomas E. Downing 2002
Johannesburg Summit 2002: Challenges and Partnerships: edited by Diana Fortescue 2002
A Parliament of Science: edited by Michael Tobias, Teun Timmers and Gill Wright: 2003
Scientists Debate Gaia: edited by Stephen H. Schneider, James R. Miller, Eileen Crist, & Penelope J. Boston: 2004
Roy Jenkins: A Retrospective: edited by Andrew Adonis and Keith Thomas: OUP: 2004
Great Natural Historians: edited by Robert Huxley, Thames & Hudson 2007
Sudden and Disruptive Climate Change: edited by Michael MacCracken et al, Earthscan 2008 Book reviews for the Financial Times, Nature, The Literary Review, The Times Higher Education Supplement, and others
Book reviews for the Financial Times, Nature, The Literary Review, The Times Higher Education Supplement and others.

Radio and Television
Wide experience of radio and television, in particular:

BBC Radio 4 Desert Island Discs (1990)
The Doomsday Letters (1996)
BBC Breakfast with Frost (2000 and 2002)
BBC Radio Webcast at the Thames Barrier (2000/2001)
ITV Jonathan Dimbleby Show (2000)
Radio 4 programme The Commission (2002)
ITN & ITV News & Current Affairs interviews (on going)
BBC & BBC World Service interviews (on going)
Radio 4 Today programme interviews (2002/3)
BBC 2 documentary film UK Confidential New Year’s Day (2002).

Business, University and other Interests

Director (non executive) Govett Enhanced Income Investment Trust 1999 – 2004
Director BOC Foundation for the Environment 1990 – 2003
Member of Environment Committee of Friends Provident 1995 – 99
Stewardship Committee of Reference of ISIS Asset Management, now F&C Asset Management 1999 – 2007
Director (non executive) IBM (UK) 1990-95: Member of IBM Advisory Board 1995 – 2000
Director (non executive) Govett Mexican Horizons 1991-1996
Director (non executive) Govett American Smaller Companies Trust 1996-1998
Director of the Green College Centre for Environmental Policy and Understanding 1992 -2006
Chairman of the Trustees of Leadership for Environment and Development UK 2001-2005
Trustee of the Baring Foundation 1992 – 2002
Trustee of the British Museum of Natural History 1992 – 2001
Trustee of World Wide Fund for Nature (UK) 1993-1999
Trustee of the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh 1997 – 2001
Chairman of the Advisory Committee on the Global Future of Civil Nuclear Energy (within the Sustainable Energy Programme of the Royal Institute of International Affairs) 2000-2002
President, Education Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science 2002-2003
Senior Advisor to the Global Environment Facility in Washington DC USA 1994 – 2003
Chairman of Advisory Group of the Centre for Climate Impacts Forecasting (C-CLIF) 1999 -2003
Associate Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Ethics, Environment & Society (OCEES) 1996 – 2003
Member of the Copenhagen Climate Council 2008 – 2009
Vice President of Interact Worldwide (previously Population Concern) 1990 –
Vice President of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine 1994 –
Associate Fellow of the Environmental Change Institute, Oxford 1997 –
Governor of the Ditchley Foundation 1991, and member of the Council of Management 2002 –
Advisor to British Antarctic Survey 1998 –
Vice President of United Nations Association of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Trustee of the Reuters Foundation, now Thomson-Reuters Foundation 2000-
Trustee of TERI Europe 2003 –
Trustee of the Foundation for the Future 2007 –
Director of the Policy Foresight Programme and Associate Fellow of the James Martin Institute for Science and Civilization, Oxford University 2006 – 2008
Chairman of Sustainability Assessment of Nuclear Power (SPRIng) 2008-
Honorary President of the Good Earth Trust 2008 –
Patron of the Optimum Population Trust
Patron on the Bay Trust (Pines Calyx) 2010 –
Member, the Oxford Commission on Sustainable Consumption 1999 – 2004
Member, China Council for International Co-operation on Environment and Development 1992-2006
Member, Environmental Advisory Council of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development 1991-4 and again 1999-2005
Member, Government Task Force on Urban Regeneration 1998 – 99
Member, Government Task Force on Potentially Hazardous Near Earth Objects 2000
Member, Board of Overseers of the Thomas J. Watson Jr. Institute for International Studies at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA 1996-2010: Emeritus Member 2010
Member, Board of Overseers of the International Research Institute for Climate and Society at the Earth Institute Columbia University, New York 2002 –
Member, Government Round Table on Sustainable Development 1994 -2000
Member, Council of St. George’s House, Windsor 1992-99
Member, Committee for the Public Understanding of Science (COPUS) 1991- 4
Member, Working Group on the Use of Non-Human Primates in Research 2005-2006.

Personal Interests
Climatology, the early history of the earth, art (especially pre Colombiana), and mountains.
Honours

GCMG 1988; KCVO 1983 (MVO 1958)
Officer Order of Orange Nassau (Netherlands) 1958
Chevalier in the National Order of Mali 1979
Order of the Aztec Eagle with sash (Mexico) 1994
Doctor (honoris causa), Academia Mexicana de Derecho Internacional 1983. Orden Academica del Derecho, de la Cultura, y de la Paz 1989
Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) University of Massachusetts, USA, 1990
Doctor (honoris causa) University of Stirling 1990
Doctor of Science (honoris causa) University of East Anglia 1990
Doctor of Letters (honoris causa) Polytechnic of Central London 1990 (now the University of Westminster)
Doctor of Science (honoris causa) University of Sussex 1991
Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) University of Birmingham 1991
Doctor of Laws (honoris causa) University of Bristol 1991
Doctor of Science (honoris causa) Cranfield University 1992
Doctor of Science (honoris causa) Loughborough University of Technology 1995
Doctor of Civil Law (honoris causa) University of Kent at Canterbury 1996
Doctor (honoris causa) Sheffield Hallam University 1996
Doctor (honoris causa) University of East London 1998
Doctor of Science (honoris causa) University of Exeter 1999
Doctor of Science (honoris causa) University of Hull 2001
Doctor of Science (honoris causa) University of Plymouth 2001
Doctor of Science (honoris causa) University of St. Andrews 2002
Doctor of Science (honoris causa) University of Southampton 2002
Doctor of Science (honoris causa) Oxford Brookes University 2002
Doctor of Science (honoris causa) Universite du Littoral Cote d’Opale 2002
Doctor of Humane Letters (honoris causa) American University of Paris 2003
Doctor of Law (honoris causa) University of Nottingham 2003
Doctor of The Open University (honoris causa) 2006
Doctor of Sciences (honoris causa) University of Brighton 2006
Honorary Fellow of the Anglo American School, New York City 1990
Honorary Fellow of St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge 1995
Honorary Fellow of Green College, Oxford 1997
Honorary Fellow of Westminster School 1993
Honorary Fellow of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society 1992
Honorary Fellow of The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management 1996
Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects 2000
Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institution of Great Britain 2002
Honorary Senior Member of Darwin College, Cambridge 1997
Member of The Global 500: Roll of Honour for Environmental Achievement of the United Nations Environment Programme 1991
Global Environmental Leadership Award of the Climate Institute of Washington DC 1996
Distinguished Lecturer British Geological Survey 1994
Centennial Lecturer at Arizona State University 1995
Melchett Medallist of the Institute of Energy 1996
Kelvin Medallist of the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow 1996
First Happold Medallist of the National Construction Industry Council 1998
Patron’s Medal of the Royal Geographical Society 2000
Distinguished Environmental Lecturer at Harvard University 2001
Award for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development) 1996
Award for International Cooperation on Environmental Protection (Chinese State Environmental Protection Agency SEPA) 2003
CAB International Bioscience Fellow 2004
Chinese Government Friendship Award 2004
Minor Planet named No. 5971 Tickell 2006.
The Sir Crispin Tickell High Altitude Climate Observatory in Mexico and Associated Tickell Interaction Network in Mexico and beyond 2010 –