UN Secretary General Ban Ki- moon welcomed the pledges of up to $9.3 billion for the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to help developing countries tackle climate change.

"These pledges go far to kick-start the operationalization of the Fund, and follow on the heels of other significant climate actions such as the U.S.-China joint announcement and the decision by the European Union as well as positive commitments reaffirmed by other leaders in recent meetings including at the G20 and the September Climate Summit," said a statement issued at the UN by Ban's spokesperson.

"These developments demonstrate that governments increasingly understand both the benefits derived from climate action and the growing risks of delay," Ban said, adding that the positive move also provides much needed public finance which is key to unlocking investments at a much larger scale from private sources.

The UN chief underscored the importance of climate finance for securing a meaningful, universal climate agreement in Paris in 2015 and for catalyzing action on the ground.

He also urged all developed countries that have not yet pledged to the GCF to do so by the upcoming climate conference in Lima of Peru, and encouraged those developing countries to consider making voluntary contributions to the Fund.

The South Korea-based GCF is a fund within the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) founded as a mechanism to redistribute money from the developed to the developing world, in order to assist the developing countries in adaptation and mitigation practices to counter climate change.

The Fund concluded its first pledging conference Thursday in Berlin, Germany, with 21 governments pledging a total of up to $9.3 billion.

(Xinhua News Agency November 20, 2014)