Soros joins U.N. green financing effort

UNITED NATIONS, March 5 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed a panel of philanthropists to mobilize financing to help developing nations fight climate change.

World leaders at a climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December backed an accord that would set aside up to $100 billion for developing nations to address the challenges of adopting green energy practices.

Ban in February launched an Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing, which is to deliver a final report to the United Nations before a climate conference in Mexico this year.

The advisory group, Ban said, is responsible for finding ways to boost short- and long-term financing for developing nations.

"Let me emphasize the importance of rapid action," said Ban. "Developing countries need to move as quickly as possible toward a future of low-emissions growth and prosperity."

Billionaire philanthropist George Soros and British academic Nicholas Stern are among the 19 panelists that form the advisory group set up to kick off the financing effort, the U.N. news agency reports.

The U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change recognized the need to limit greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Developing nations struggle with adopting the technology needed, however, to contribute to the 2020 goals.

The group has its first meeting in London at the end of the month.