Australia will contribute A$200 million over four years into a U.N. fund to help poor nations cope with global warming, Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Wednesday, despite earlier having said it did not intend to contribute to the fund.

The pledge to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) is the latest in a string of stinging policy reversals for former climate-change skeptic Abbott, whose struggling conservative government has hit record low approval ratings.

G20 leaders put an uncomfortable spotlight on climate change at last month's leader's summit in Brisbane despite efforts by host Australia to focus more narrowly on economic growth. Japan pledged $1.5 billion to the fund during the summit and U.S. President Barack Obama pledged up to $3 billion, putting the fund within sight of its $10 billion goal.

However, Australia was named the worst-performing industrial country in the world on climate change in a report released at international negotiations in Peru.

The climate change performance index ranked Denmark as the best-performing country in the world, followed by Sweden and Britain.

Among the world's top 10 emitters, Germany was ranked the highest at 22. Australia was second bottom overall, above Saudi Arabia - which was not classified as industrial.

China, the world's biggest emitter, was in 45th spot - one below the US, which is the world's second largest emitter of greenhouse gases that cause climate change.

The CCPI report, produced by the thinktank Germanwatch and Climate Action Network Europe, covers the top 58 emitters of greenhouse gases in the world and about 90 per cent of all energy-related emissions.

Last month a UN environment programme report named Australia alongside Canada, the US and Mexico as the only countries that were likely to miss their current 2020 targets to cut emissions.

The 2014 Emissions Gap report said the scrapping of Australia's carbon price meant the country was "no longer on track" to meet its target to cut emissions by five per cent by 2020.