Source: Channel 4 News
URL: N/A
Date: 26/06/2014
Event: Chris Smith: none of UK political parties "really get the importance of climate change"
Credit: Channel 4 News
People:
Jon Snow: Well, Chris Smith stands down from his job as Chair of the Environment Agency next month. A little earlier, I asked him: did he feel he was perhaps even himself a victim of the floods?
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Lord Smith: I went through a pretty torrid time, personally, because there was a lot of criticism, a lot of it unfair and unjust, but I've been in politics for long enough to know that you - you have to suffer that sort of thing.
Jon Snow: Well, was it politics? Were you hung out to dry by the politicians.
Lord Smith: There - there was a bit of blame game going on, from some people, I'm sure. Actually, the real culprit was the weather. That was - that was what we were facing -
Jon Snow: Well, this blame game - who was blaming you, do you think?
Lord Smith: Well, there was of course a particular moment which really made me annoyed - was when Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, went on television and said, about the Environment Agency, "we thought we were dealing with experts". That was, that was a moment when I thought: I've had enough of this...
Jon Snow: In your intersection with government, can you - can you, do you think, detect where an understanding of climate change really exists? Do you sense that the LibDems get it and the Tories don't?
Lord Smith: Ah, I don't think any of the political parties really get the importance of climate change.
Jon Snow: That would include Ed Davey, the Environment [sic] Secretary?
Lord Smith: I think it includes the whole spectrum of politics. This is the most -
Jon Snow: The departing head of the Environment Agency says that the Secretary of State for the Environment doesn't get climate change.
Lord Smith: I don't think -
Jon Snow: That's what you said.
Lord Smith: I don't think any major political figure really gets the sheer importance of this.
Jon Snow: If you distill what happened in the Somerset Levels, did the Environment Agency mess up?
Lord Smith: I think the Environment Agency did its job properly, in the Somerset Levels. What we didn't do was actively enough, a year beforehand, gather the money together that would have enabled dredging to start much earlier than it did.
Jon Snow: But you were pro-dredging, long before it happened.
Lord Smith: Well, yes, the Environment Agency put £400,000 on the table, which was what we - that was the maximum we were able to do, under the Treasury funding rules. We put that on the table and said "This is our contribution to get dredging started. Now, please, we need other people to come to the table to help, as well."
Jon Snow: So where did - where was the delay? Why did nobody else come to the table?
Lord Smith: Um, well, you'll need to ask the internal drainage boards, Somerset County Council, the district councils, all the others -
Jon Snow: Anybody other than the Environment Agency.
Lord Smith: The Environment Agency put the money that it was allowed to put, by government - put that money on the table a year ago.
Jon Snow: Do you think, in the end, maybe you were too urban to be an Environment Agency Director?
Lord Smith: Well, I'd reject the view that I was too urban. I've spent a lifetime -
Jon Snow: Are you comfortable in wellies?
Lord Smith: I've spent a lifetime climbing hills and walking valleys, and I love the open air, the rural landscapes of this country, and I will carry on doing that.
Jon Snow: Chris Smith, thank you very much for talking with us.