WINDHOEK: The second meeting of the Board of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) starts on Thursday in Songdo, Republic of Korea.

Building on the successful outcome of its inaugural meeting in August in Geneva, it will address several key issues for the operationalisation of the Fund, according to a media statement issued by the GCF Secretariat on Wednesday.

Six countries have made offers to host the fund – Namibia, Germany, Mexico, Poland, Republic of Korea and Switzerland.

The Conference of the Parties of the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will subsequently be asked to endorse the Board’s decision.

The Board of the Green Climate Fund is the 24-member body that steers the activities of the fund.

The statement said the Songdo meeting will address the work plan and priorities of the Board until the end of 2013.

Another important step expected is the launch of the selection process for the Executive Director of the fund, who will head the independent Secretariat that will be established during the course of next year.

The Board will also discuss its report to the United Nations’ Climate Change Conference, which takes place from 26 November to 07 December 2012 in Doha, Qatar, as well as a number of other organisational issues.

The Green Climate Fund was established in December 2011 in Durban, South Africa by the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC with the purpose of making a significant and ambitious contribution to the global efforts towards attaining the goals set by the international community to combat climate change.

In the context of sustainable development, the fund will promote the paradigm shift towards low-emission and climate-resilient development pathways by providing support to developing countries to limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, and to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

The GCF is governed and supervised by the Board, and was designated as an operating entity of the financial mechanism of the UNFCCC.

Developed nations agreed in 2009 to raise climate aid, now worth about US.dollars 10 billion (about N.dollars 80 billion) a year to an annual amount of US.dollars 100 billion (about N.dollars 800 billion) from 2020 to help developing countries curb Greenhouse gas emissions and cope with floods, droughts, heat waves and rising sea levels.

The long-term goal of the fund is to “transform the livelihoods of people by responding to the impacts of climate change”.