Dubbed the Nairobi Framework, the initiative aims to encourage rich countries to invest in green projects, particularly in African countries, under the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

Annan outlined the scheme in a speech to launch a three-day session of high-level climate negotiations here.

Since Kyoto's inception in February 2005, industrialised countries have hugely overlooked Africa when committing funds to fight climate change, the UN said.

"It is no secret that, to date, only a few countries in sub-Saharan Africa are likely to benefit from the CDM in the coming years," said the UN Development Programme's (UNDP) energy and environment director, Olav Kjorven.

"We aim to change this so that sub-Saharan Africa and other poor countries can have their fair share of carbon finance," Kjorven said.

Through the CDM, rich countries which back cleaner-energy projects, such as lower-pollution fossil fuels or hydro and solar energy, get carbon credits in exchange. These credits may then be sold or counted towards the rich country's pollution reduction target.

Under the new initiative, the UN's environment and development programmes (the UNEP and UNDP) will provide expertise to help governments in developing countries factor the effects of climate change into their national development plans.

The goal is to help them "climate-proof" their economies.

"Investments in roads, railways, hospitals, fisheries and power systems are underway across the sub-Saharan African region but few if any are being planned with future climate impacts in mind," UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said.

Dam building, Steiner said, may be vulnerable to increasingly intense droughts, while coastal roads may be at risk from rising sea levels.

The initiative will team investors with projects considered viable in developing countries and provide expertise to help these countries pinpoint and draft such proposals.

It will also identify smaller schemes that could be bundled together to make them into a bigger package that would make investment more attractive to large corporations.

Spanish Environment Minister Cristina Narbona on Wednesday pledged two million euros (2.55 million dollars) for the Nairobi Framework and UN officials said they expected other countries to pony up funding soon.

Sponsored by the UNDP, UNEP, the World Bank Group, African Development Bank (ADB) and UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the initiative will attempt to restore balance to the CDM, which has so far eluded African countries almost completely in favour of big developing countries.

India alone accounts for 39 percent of the 480 CDM projects that are currently underway. Only nine are located in Africa -- in South Africa, Morocco and Tunisia.

Africa is the continent worst affected by global warming despite emitting the least amount of the greenhouse gases blamed for climate change.

If measures are not taken immediately to stem further climate change, nearly 480 million people in Africa may be facing water security problems by 2025, the UN said.

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