Aid group Oxfam has called on other rich nations to follow the example of Germany, which has promised €750m ($1bn) for the UN's fledgling Green Climate Fund.

 

The announcement by Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin, where some 35 ministers from around the world are meeting to discuss international climate action, is the only large pledge of money for the Green Climate Fund so far.

 

The fund was agreed at UN climate talks in 2010 but has been hampered by wrangling over its design. Now its operating rules have been settled, it will hold a first pledging conference for potential donors in the second half of November, before the UN climate conference in Peru.

 

The fund aims to help poor nations pursue clean development and adapt to climate change impacts, including more floods, droughts, heatwaves and rising sea levels. It is regarded as a key part of the puzzle in securing a new global deal to tackle climate change due to be agreed in Paris in late 2015.

 

The fund so far has $55m, mainly for its own administration and to help countries plan to receive the climate finance it will distribute, including $10m from Seoul.

 

Developing nations say they want $15 billion in pledges from the rich this year to fund projects like solar power, geothermal energy or ensuring water supplies. The UN's top climate official, Christiana Figueres, has called for "at least an initial $10bn" for the Green Climate Fund.

 

The fund is expected to channel a large portion of the $100bn a year wealthy countries have promised to mobilize by 2020 to help vulnerable states adapt to climate change and pursue low-carbon growth.