NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer on Tuesday warned of the security threat posed by climate change, as the military alliance ponders its future role ahead of its 60th anniversary next year.

"Changes in the global climate are already visible today," he said. "They are widely expected to become more pronounced and visible (...) and that will have security implications."

"It will sharpen the competition over resources, notably water. It will increase the risks to coastal regions. It will provoke disputes over territory and farming land. It will spur migration and it will make fragile states even more fragile," he told a defence conference in Brussels.

"Simply put, climate change could confront us with a whole range of unpleasant developments — developments which no single nation-state has the power to contain."

NATO is preparing to review its strategy in light of new security challenges at its birthday summit on the Rhine river — in the French city of Strasbourg and neighbouring Kehl in Germany — in the first half of 2009.

Scheffer urged the 26 member nations to bear climate change in mind as one of the key elements "shaping the security environment in the next decade".

In a report in April, a respected British security think-tank warned that the international response to security threats posed by climate change has been "slow and inadequate".

The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) said that any failure to adequately prepare would be on a par with neglecting the risks of nuclear weapons proliferation or terrorism.

It said concerns over climate security would lead to "fundamental changes" in the geo-political landscape, force countries to radically rethink their national interests, and alter the way international relations are conducted.

A European Union report released in March noted that climate change had impacted heavily on the conflict in Darfur, migration from flood-prone Bangladesh and hopes for stability in the Middle East.

It said that threats would arise from a reduction in farm land, water shortages, dwindling food and fish stocks, and increased flooding or longer droughts.

AFP