Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop has launched a bid for Australia to co-chair the Green Climate Fund that former prime minister Tony Abbott once criticised as "a Bob Brown bank on an international scale".
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A decision on who the next two co-chairs of the fund will be is expected to be made in Zambia late next week.
The co-chair positions are typically held by one developing and one developed country for a period of one year.
Fairfax Media has learnt that Ms Bishop first proposed Australia put its name forward to co-chair the fund when Mr Abbott was still prime minister.
Final approval for the bid was not, however, forthcoming until the Liberal Party switched to Malcolm Turnbull last month.
The decision to put Australia's name forward for the co-chairmanship marks another significant shift in Australia's stance towards the climate fund from initial skepticism to support for its goals.
The federal government now believes making the bid for the chairmanship, at least in part, underscores Australia's commitment to tackling climate change.
Last December, amid mounting international criticism, Mr Abbott and Ms Bishop announced the federal government would contribute $200 million over four years to the fund, which aimed to raise as much as $10 billion to help developing countries limit and reduce their greenhouse gas conditions.
At the time, Ms Bishop denied international pressure had played a part in the policy switch, which came after the US, Canada and other key allies had announced they would contribute.
But prior to the decision to kick in $200 million, Mr Abbott had compared the international climate fund to the Clean Energy Finance Corporation - which he had sought to but failed to abolish - on an international scale.
Australia has already made a $70 million payment into the fund and its contribution is designed to facilitate investment in infrastructure, energy, forestry and emissions reductions programs.
The $200 million commitment builds on money Australia has already spent in the Pacific to help near neighbours combat the effects of climate change, which includes more than $50 million on climate change resilience projects.
That spending has included $4.1 million on new school facilities on Tuvalu that take into account the potential effects of climate change, emergency works in the Solomon Islands and a $600,000 climate change adaptation project in the Marshall Islands.
Greens climate change spokeswoman Larissa Waters, however, said the decision to nominate for the co-chair position was hypocritical given that, in her view, Australia's estimated fair share contribution should be $350 million annually.
"Australia has no credibility in overseeing the Green Climate Fund when this government is simultaneously trying to open the southern hemisphere's largest coal mine in Queensland," she said.
"We are the largest per capita emitter of carbon pollution of any developed country and the Turnbull government's measly reduction targets will keep it that way."
The bid comes ahead of a crucial climate conference that will be held in Paris at the end of this year, which Ms Bishop, Environment Minister Greg Hunt and possibly Mr Turnbull will attend.
