A top UN advisory group has been established to find and oversee financing on coping with the effects of climate change. It aims to help developing countries adapt to climate change, while helping them cut back on their own carbon emissions.

The UN advisory group was jointly launched by UN chief, Ban Ki-Moon, British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi. The British and Ethiopian leaders, who will co-chair the group participated in the event via a video link.

The UN chief says the funds will help those countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

Ban Ki-Moon said, ".... Developing countries need to move as quickly as possible towards the future of low emission growth and prosperity. Billions of people in Africa and around the globe are suffering from the effects of climate change. Providing resources for adaptation is a moral imperative."

The advisory group aims to raise 30 billion US dollars annually over the next three years. This would eventually increase to 100 billion dollars annually by 2020.

The group plans to create transparent structures for the flow of financing from developed to developing countries.

Meles Zenawi, Ethiopian Prime Minister, said, "The issue of transparency is central to the Copenhagen accord as a whole, whether it is regard to emission reductions or financing, we have to have mechanisms that assure us that a dollar of money promised is a dollar of money delivered."

Money for the group will be raised from state and private sources. It will fund environmentally-friendly initiatives including reforestation, economic development with low-carbon emissions and measures for adapting to rising sea levels and higher temperatures.