Soon after he took office in 2007, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared that there was an urgent need to reframe the debate on climate change from an environmental to a development and security issue, and that it would be one of his top priorities as UN leader. Environmental factors, including land use, water availability, biodiversity loss, soil degradation and acute weather events, have been implicated in at least 73 conflicts since 1980, and at least 40% of intra-state conflicts since the end of the Second World War can be associated with natural resources. A rapidly growing body of research on climate change, resource scarcity and conflict has ensured that the issue is rising on the international agenda. Yet, although such concerns cut across the security, development and humanitarian sectors, there is little dialogue, let alone coordination, between and among government departments and international and non-governmental organisations responsible for these domains.
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