Chris Smith - the respectable radical who is plotting a green revolution

Alice Thomson and Rachel Sylvester

Chris Smith is the respectable radical. He was the first openly gay MP. As the Culture Secretary in Tony Blair’s Government, he pioneered free admissions to museums. Later, from the back benches, he masterminded opposition in the House of Commons to the war in Iraq. Now Lord Smith of Finsbury wants to start a green revolution — and the mild-mannered rambler might just succeed.
As chairman of the Environment Agency, his job is to persuade a sceptical public that, despite the recession, climate change remains the greatest threat to Britain.
Speaking at his office overlooking the Thames before his organisation’s conference next week, he insists that bullying does not work, and instead wants to face down the growing band of climate-change agnostics: “The number of people claiming climate change isn’t happening is minuscule, and they have no authority among the scientific community,” he says. “They are mavericks, not backed up by the evidence.”
It is irrelevant, he says, that the world has recently been getting cooler. “You have to look at the trend over 20 years, and that clearly shows global warming. There are alarming new phenomena — the floods here two years ago, the glaciers melting. The evidence is all around us.”

Managing change is not enough, he argues; Britain has to counteract it. “We are facing an average rise of two degrees over the next 50 years. That will cause difficulties with water resources — summer flows in rivers will be down 50 per cent. It will cause movements of population around the world as people flee less habitable areas. Sea rise will threaten urban areas, there will be pressure on agricultural resources.”
People need to understand the implications of global warming, he says. One stark example is that changes to the coastline will accelerate — and the Environment Agency will no longer be able to protect all the crumbling cliffs: “Suffolk, Norfolk and Lincolnshire coasts are particularly vulnerable to erosion. The risk will increase. My determination is to do what we can to defend where we can . . . But there’ll be some parts that can’t be defended in perpetuity. We can’t build a concrete wall around the whole of England.”
Lord Smith is urging the Government to provide money for local authorities to buy cliff-top properties at risk of tumbling into the sea over the next 20 years. “We estimate there are 200 to 250 properties. The local authority would purchase property from the current owner, then lease it back to them.
“Then, if it gets to a stage where they can’t live in it any more because of the erosion, they would have the funds to move somewhere else. You are talking not just about a temporary flood: it’s the permanent loss of someone’s property through no fault of their own.”
At the moment, people may be more worried about unemployment and bankers’ bonuses, but Lord Smith says that the economy and environment go together. “If we are serious about coming out of recession in a more sustainable way, we have to look at green products, carbon capture, tidal power. These are the new industries for tomorrow and hold answers to economic problems.”
The problems are real, he says, but that does not mean that “climate change deniers” should be outcast: “They are dangerous, but it’s not like racism or sexism or homophobia.” This week, an employee successfully sued a company for not taking his environmental concerns seriously. “People should be allowed to believe passionately in environmental change — for them it can be like a religion.”
The devil, in his view, is Jeremy Clarkson, presenter of the motoring show Top Gear: “He would not be my favourite TV viewing, but there will be more rejoicing in Heaven for one sinner who repents. I would like him to be up there saying what we need is to develop an electric car that can beat the world. I want the thrill of speed but from electricity not fossil fuel.”
Lord Smith is disappointed that Gordon Brown’s moral compass points more to Africa than to the environment. “The Government hasn’t done enough on developing a national energy efficiency programme on energy efficiency in people’s homes. It is the low-hanging fruit. You get amazing benefits and cheaper bills, and create a lot of jobs. It’s win-win, but there is nothing co-ordinated.”
Labour has accused David Cameron of hypocrisy on the environment for cycling to Westminster — but having his briefcase driven by a chauffeur. Lord Smith, who is now a crossbencher, says: “The Tories will be equally green, the husky hugging is genuine. The climate change debate isn’t partisan.”
Individuals rather than governments hold the key to preventing global meltdown, he says. “I try and eat more fish and less meat. I don’t have a windmill on my house — there’s some evidence that the carbon generated by making a windmill for a house outweighs the benefit — but I want to put solar panels on the roof.
“I try and be sensible about how often I flush the loo, I usually have showers although occasionally I’ll permit myself the guilty luxury of a bath. I don’t fly a huge amount, I turn lights off religiously, I recycle everything I can.”
When it comes to other people, however, he prefers bribes to bans. He is not going to force everyone to become vegans. “It’s impractical to suggest the world stops eating meat. Cows produce pollution, we can’t stop people eating beef, but we can change the nature of feed stuff and to diminish greenhouse gas.” Chicken and lamb are “probably better” than beef, but there shouldn’t be a steak duty. “Taxes aren’t the answer. We need to change agricultural production.”
He regards himself as a civil libertarian — he wants to nudge rather than bludgeon travellers away from air travel. “We can’t ban all travel. We need to find better ways of getting around. Instead of taking planes in Europe, we have to develop high-speed rail.” He was appalled by the announcement this week of Britain’s first £1,000 rail fare. “It costs more to travel by train than plane . . . I think ultimately you need more subsidy to make rail travel more attractive.”
His big idea is to give everyone a personal carbon allowance, which would limit their use of air travel, heating and fast cars. “People could choose what they wanted to do, but life would become more expensive if they went over their carbon limit. They could sell on anything they didn’t use.”
He thinks that it would be fairer to allow travellers to take a small number of cheap flights every year, rather than taxing budget airlines out of existence. “People on limited means need holidays too,” he says. But does he agree with the environmentalist and writer Jonathon Porritt, that people who have more than two children are behaving irresponsibly? “Population is a big issue but you can’t have a quota,” he says.
When dealing with the supermarkets, he says that he prefers using carrots to sticks. “Home delivery is a very good, convenient idea that saves on the carbon footprint.” The Nimbys, however, are not going to be let off so easily. “I want wind power all over the countryside. There are only a few locations in the most precious and beautiful bits of landscape that would not be appropriate. As a general principle we need more wind farms.”
Lord Smith is not a conservative environmentalist, like the Prince of Wales. So does he think that the Prince is right to intervene on controversial issues? “Prince Charles is a useful voice, but he isn’t right on everything. I disagree with his blanket opposition to GM food.”
Lord Smith’s favourite political heir apparent is Ed Miliband, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, with whom he has worked closely since being appointed to the Environment Agency last year. “He’s been up for making big decisions. Far too often government ministers lose sight of the wood for the trees, Ed still sees the big story. He doesn’t dither.”
Unlike the Prime Minister? “You can read polls as well as I can,” says the former Blair ally. “In the twelfth year of Government, there is inevitably a sense that things are changing. The question is less who [the leader] is, and more what they are saying to the electorate about the purpose of the Government. I think Labour need to get much more vigorous about the story they are telling.”
If he were in the Cabinet, would he be privately suggesting that Mr Brown might like to retire to his compost heap in Kirkcaldy? “I wouldn’t be in the Cabinet because I would have resigned over Iraq,” he says.
The world is gathering for a summit on climate change in Copenhagen next month, but Lord Smith admits that a significant agreement is unlikely. “The Chinese have really taken this agenda forward, the Americans are very up for it, the problems lie in the American political system. Copenhagen is going to be the start not the end of the process.”
CV
Age 57
Education Pembroke College, Cambridge and Harvard
Career 1983 elected Labour MP for Islington South and Finsbury
1997-2001 Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
2003-2008 chairman, Clore Leadership Programme
2005 becomes life peer, privy councillor
2007 chairman, Advertising Standards Authority
2008 chairman, Environment Agency
Quickfire
Munros or Everest? Munros
Hallowe’en or Bonfire Night? Bonfire Night
Seabed or space? Seabed
Leather or plastic? Neither
Brahms or Bob Dylan? Both
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall or Gordon Ramsay? Fearnley-Whittingstall