Crispin Tickell

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Sir Crispin Tickell (born 1930), GCMG, KCVO, is a British diplomat, environmentalist and academic. He did his national service in the Coldstream Guards. As a diplomat he was Chef de Cabinet to the President of the European Commission (1977-1980), British Ambassador to Mexico (1981-1983), Permanent Secretary of the Official Development Assistance (now Department for International Development) (1984-1987), and British Ambassador to the United Nations and Permanent Representative on the UN Security Council (1987-1990).

Sir Crispin was President of the Royal Geographical Society from 1990 to 1993 and warden of Green College, Oxford between 1990 and 1997, where he appointed George Monbiot and Norman Myers as Visiting Fellows. From 1996 until August of 2006 he was chancellor of the University of Kent when Sir Robert Worcester took over the position . He is currently director of the Policy Foresight Programme of the James Martin Institute for Science and Civilization at the University of Oxford (formerly the Green College Centre for Environmental Policy and Understanding) and Chairman Emeritus of the Climate Institute, in Washington DC. He has many interests, including climate change, population issues, conservation of biodiversity and the early history of the Earth.

He was knighted as a KCVO in 1983 on the Royal Yacht Britannia, to mark the conclusion of Queen Elizabeth's State Visit to Mexico. He was later appointed GCMG for his work at the UN.

His worldwide status as an authority on climate change is all the more surprising because he has no formal academic training in this area and has formed his opinion by self-teaching.

Tickell helped to write Margaret Thatcher's speech on global climate change (Margaret Thatcher, The Downing Street Years, p.640). He chaired John Major's Government Panel on Sustainable Development (1994-2000), and was a member of two government task forces under the Labour Party: one on Urban Regeneration, chaired by Sir Richard Rogers (1998-1999), and one on Potentially Hazardous Near-Earth Objects (2000).

[edit] Public Impact

A man of strong environmental convictions, he has been described as influential in Britain, although his environmental message has not always travelled as easily abroad, particularly to the United States. Despite his non-scientific background, he is internationally respected as having a strong grasp of science policy issues.

[edit] Publications

Climate Change and World Affairs, with a preface by Solly Zuckerman (1977, second edition 1986, Harvard International Affairs Committee). second edition available online in full
Mary Anning of Lyme Regis, with a preface by John Fowles (1996, 1998 and 2003).