Interview: Alison Tickell, Founder and CEO of Julie’s Bicycle

1. Tell us about the vision in establishing Julie’s Bicycle

I established Julie’s Bicycle in 2007 in the UK music industry as a non-profit mobilizing action and inspiring new thinking in response to the climate and nature crisis. JB now works across arts and culture internationally and is acknowledged as a pioneer in the field, developing much of the foundational research, ideas, and resources driving cultural change.

As a cellist, my approach is rooted in my work with jazz improviser and teacher John Stevens, whose understanding of music and community activism created the foundational values that inspired Julie’s Bicycle.

I have contributed to several publications, including most recently to ‘Museums and the Climate Crisis’, edited by Nick Merriman (Routledge 2023).

2. Tell us about Julie’s Bicycle’s projects and which organizations Julie’s Bicycle collaborates with

I have been a relentless public advocate for culture-based climate action, advising and contributing to many initiatives in the field including: IFACCA, UNFCCC, G20 Culture, Creative Europe, European Parliament, national governments, London Climate Action Week, networks, projects, and funders.

I  am currently working with the Climate Heritage Network and Global Call for Culture-based Climate Action, co-chairing the Climate theme for the UK Creative Industries Council. I am on the European Heritage Hub Steering Committee and am a life-long Ashoka Fellow.

3. Tell us about Julie’s Bicycle’s involvement with London Climate Action Week

London Climate Action Week (LCAW), in its 7th year, took place 21-29 June 2025. Coinciding with the last week of the Bonn climate talks SB62, this year’s LCAW was by far the biggest yet, with hundreds of organizations, communities, and individuals attending over 700 climate-themed events.

This year, culture was ever-present – at last it is being recognized as a force for change, and the word was on everyone’s lips even outside the exhibitions, events, public art, and conversations. Across the JB team, we attended several events and shared some highlights and insights from across the week, with key takeaways, links to watch back, and events and actions to look out for.

Climate Risk Mapping for London’s Cultural Venues – Workshop and Launch

JB’s Caroline, Vicky, and Tenaya attended a workshop to launch new climate risk maps of London for Cultural Venues – a project produced by Bloomberg Associates in collaboration with BFI and South Bank and Waterloo Sustains Us, and available to view in our resource hub.

The maps overlay climate risks (heat, flood), with indicators of social vulnerability and environmental exposure (access to public open space, tree cover). They allow cultural venues in the capital to zoom in at the borough level and adjust layers to look at the risks in more detail. They are intended to support venues in identifying their climate risks and to help them understand where to start in climate adaptation planning. They are designed to raise awareness and prompt venues to consider what role cultural venues can play in response to their local risks.

One example of a climate initiative responding to these risks, is the BFI’s Cool off in Culture initiative, where venues can sign up to offer accessible, safe spaces for communities to cool off on hot days, which can mitigate health risks. This collaborative campaign can help to build connections between cultural venues and local authorities: Lambeth, for example, has advertising screens across the city that they can use to direct people to cool spaces during heatwaves.

Take a look at the Climate Risk Maps

Find out more about The Globe Talks: A Global Mutirão with COP30.

3. Tell us about Julie’s Bicycle’s involvement with SB62- UN Climate Change Conference, Bonn

I was in Bonn, Germany, at SB62 UN Climate Change Conference, to share our latest plans for putting culture at the heart of climate action. (watch this space!).

There was also a meeting for the Group of Friends for Culture-Based Climate Action (an international coalition of UNFCCC Member States who are building political momentum for culture and heritage-based climate action) and Marcele Oliveira, and a presentation from lawyer, climate heritage policy expert, and friend of JB, Andrew Potts, on the global goal on adaptation and cultural heritage.

From locally rooted to global campaigns, we feel fortunate to be part of a community alongside such inspiring and visionary initiatives and supporters. A big thank you to Entertainment + Culture Pavilion, Earth Alliance, and Global Artivism for organizing an exhilarating, caring, and thoughtful exchange on the road to COP30 in Belem.

Most significantly, some really exciting news for culture. ‘Culture, cultural heritage, and climate action‘ has been included in the 30 key objectives for COP30 (under section 5: Fostering Human and Social Development). This is a signal that culture’s power to unlock climate action is finally being recognized and celebrated, and it’s a first vital step towards its inclusion in global climate policy. 

6. Tell us about your organization’s initiatives at COP30

You can read more about the COP30 action agenda here.

7. Why are culture and heritage critical for climate?

As negotiators battle over the inclusion of a reference to the phase out of fossil fuels in the final COP30 decision text, there is another, closely related  battle going on: the inclusion of a reference to culture. It is extraordinary that the root cause of climate change - fossil fuels - is not headlined. It's the elephant in the room that trumpets our inability to speak the truth. It should be the headline consensus, all the rest detail.

How can this be? It isn't only the power and politics of fossil fuel interests (shame on us), nor a failure to grasp the science, incompetent negotiators; it isn't even the economics, with renewable energy outperforming fossil fuels.

It comes down to culture. Culture has driven fossil fuel logics: if you want an easy life - heat, cooling, cars, containers, travel, connectivity – in short, happiness  - you need energy from fossil fuels. That story is at the heart of climate change, a breakdown of natural life systems, and intolerable systemic and historic inequity.

Global South communities, whilst holding on to cultural values and traditions most tightly, continue to bear the brunt of climate injustices, yet have done the least. The Global Goal on Adaptation is the only UNFCCC policy area which recognizes that solutions to climate include cultural rights, practices, and knowledge as climate justice.

8. Anything else you would like to add

Culture is power. COP30 is a historic moment to challenge fossil fuel narratives and lifestyles through culture, and offer alternatives that are already thriving.

If we don't change mindsets we fail; If we don't root climate action in communities and cultural practices, which include memory, ancestry, traditions, and rituals, we fail. Culture - creative industries, arts, cultural heritage and practices, indigenous knowledge, food, faith traditions - is the roadmap for change.

If the Global Mutirao doesn’t take this on perhaps the G20 will, if Lula uses that forum as to reinstate a fossil-fuel phase-out plan – down but not out. Because culture is the instrument of our failure, now it must be the instrument of our success.

9. How can people reach you and get involved?

alison@juliesbicycle.com
https://juliesbicycle.com/about-us/people/alison-tickell/