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DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Now more than 5,000 people are known to have been killed by Typhoon Haiyan that hit the Philippines two weeks ago. It was an unavoidable natural disaster, an Act of God some might say or was it? Could the typhoon be linked to climate change? In a moment I’ll speak to the President of UNICEF, Paddy Ashdown. Let’s say a very good morning then to Paddy Ashdown, the President of the children’s charity UNICEF and starting first off about the Philippines and aid effort, something you know an awful lot about . Every disaster is of course different, are you satisfied that both the speed and the delivery of the aid to the Philippines is progressing apace?

PADDY ASHDOWN: Dermot, nice to be with you by the way. You never know this until you look at an emergency afterwards and I have done a long study for the government on a series of emergencies and how we can do that better and it is only when you look at how this develops – here’s the key point, that the really important moment is the first three or four days, the first week and getting through, and it is always the most difficult time as you saw in the Philippines, getting through all those broken systems, all those blocked roads is always very difficult but that’s what matters most and, by the way, what matters most in achieving what you need to achieve in that is whether the country has built up resilience against these natural emergencies. Let me make a couple of points to you if I can. First of all, this is the most powerful typhoon, hurricane, ever in recorded history to hit land, never has there been one this powerful. Secondly, it is always the kids who suffer most, 5.5 million children are affected by this overall. Now if that was an isolated incident it would be a meteorological phenomenon but the real worry is this, it’s not. It comes on top of these extraordinary meteorological events that have occurred, there were unprecedented floods in Corsica the other day, there have been unprecedented typhoons in the United States, there were unprecedented rains that caused the Pakistan floods not long ago and by the way, this is exactly what was predicted by those who warned of global warming some five or ten years ago, that this would be the first signs. You know, there are none so blind, Dermot, as those who will not see. The reality of it is, leave aside the appalling individual tragedies that have occurred, these are flashes of the future and I just don’t understand why in the recently concluded climate change talks in Warsaw, we are not yet anything like gripping this issue with the urgency that is needed and unless we do that, what you see isn’t going to be one event that shocks us and saddens us but an event that repeated and repeated and repeated. No one is saying that human beings alone are causing global warming, they’re not, the earth is going through one of its warming cycles, but there is no doubt now, none whatsoever, that human beings are adding to that and adding to that in a dangerous and ultimately fatal way as we saw …

DM: You have no doubt but you mentioned that category of there’s none so blind as those who will not see, as you put it, and there are plenty in that category – Lord Lawson I remember just last week opposing all the things you’ve said and who you used to spar against regularly in the House of Commons – but the key point, when you talk about in recorded history, now recorded history when it comes to weather systems, there isn’t really much data, it goes back a few centuries, that’s nothing and there may have been much bigger storms a few millennia back, we just don’t know it.

PADDY ASHDOWN: Well there may have been but let’s use the information we’ve got. If you don’t at least use the information you do have then you really are stupid. Let me just put it this way, I have a certain amount of respect for Nigel Lawson, we have indeed sparred before you’re right, there are all sorts of climate change deniers but I can tell you this – I know of not one single reputable scientific body, I’d even go further, not one single reputable scientist who supports the idea that this is not in part being caused by our activity and the truth of it is, unless we begin to take this seriously – here is a figure for you, the number of people affected by severe climactic events in the year 2010 was a pretty huge number, it was 263 million; by 2015 that is predicted by scientists to be 375 million children, million people, of which children suffer by far and away more than any others. Now are we going to be blind to that fact? Are we going to say let’s not bother, let’s not change anything, we don’t mind? If that’s the case, fine, go on as we are, continue to deny this but surely humanity thinking for the future and thinking about our children for the future, has to be discussed after the act of some of these facts. It’s not easy but it can be done. It can be done if we begin to work against the issue of climate change or climate warming and if you begin to build up resilience in the countries that are more affected which the Philippines is clearly one.

DM: And indeed when it comes to the overall question of climate change, people are going to say what can we do in this country and this relates rather nicely to this issue of the quotes attributed to the Prime Minister about getting rid of the green crap, the environmental levies that have been put on people’s energy bills. Now whether he used that word or not, it is certainly pretty clear isn’t it that in this autumn statement there’s going to be something done to remove some of that burden from energy consumers. Do you think that is the right way to go?

PADDY ASHDOWN: No, but I’m on your programme as President of UNICEF and not as a Lib Dem, Dermot. I obviously don’t, Lib Dems will resist that, I think it’s very short sighted but let me come back to this issue. You asked what can be done, here’s something that can be done …

DM: But Paddy, relate it to climate change, relate it to climate change. Shouldn’t we be increasing those tariffs if your analysis is correct?

PADDY ASHDOWN: Yes, absolutely. Look, we shall certainly be maintaining them, there is no doubt about that. People will always want to move for the short term options but yes, you’re right, of course we should be at least maintaining them and Britain is in the good position at present of being ahead of the rest of the world in this and I’m proud of that and that shows foresight. I don’t want us to fall behind. Should we increase them? Well if the case is made to do so, we should do so but we certainly should not take the short term step of reducing our commitment to making sure that we have a more energy efficient country. By the way, not only does that help climate change but it immensely helps Britain in the future. If we can become less dependent on fossil fuels and more reliant on renewable fuels, I don’t say this will be perfectly so, then of course the country benefits vastly economically as well so it makes sense for climate change, it makes sense for children who are those who suffer most and it makes sense economically as well. It seems a no-brainer to me. I’m not going to go into describing what I think of the alleged comments of the Prime Minister but I think if you’ve got any sense of foresight, any sense of humanity for the kids who are suffering, any sense that politics has to be about looking ahead and not just looking at what’s immediately round the corner if we want to build a better Britain, you’d do this. It seems to me very simple.

DM: And there is another dimension of course, we haven’t got too much time to discuss it, flowing out from the Philippines and indeed other disasters, those that have happened and those that are to come, and it is the amount, the percentage of our GDP that this country spends on aid and another thing that is being debated, constantly debated in difficult economic times, is are we helping other people too much, shouldn’t we spend some of that money at home?

PADDY ASHDOWN: I think I’m proud and I think most of Britain is proud of the fact that we are one of those countries that is most significant in helping others in desperate circumstances and especially in the face of these disasters, those arguments which by the way I don’t agree with about long term aid – if you have long term aid you build long term resilience. One pound spent on building up resilience in a country like the Philippines saves you four pounds when the disasters finally strike, that’s good economic common sense but one thing I do know is that the British public and I think the British government are proudly and always generous when it comes to helping others in the face of these terrible catastrophes. UNICEF has now raised a massive amount of money as indeed has the Disasters Emergency Committee and yet people can do that terribly easily. As President of UNICEF I am very, very proud of that. If you want to contribute to this you can contribute £3 now by texting 70123. So let’s leave aside the politics of long term aid, let’s concentrate on what we can do to help the people of the Philippines struck by this appalling natural disaster with children suffering most. Let’s give to them, the government does it, the people of Britain do it and I hope they’ll both go on doing it.

DM: Okay, well said Paddy Ashdown, thank you very much indeed. Always a pleasure, Paddy Ashdown there.