South Korea will become the official headquarters of the Green Climate Fund, a major win for the emerging Asian nation intent on becoming a leader on global environmental issues.

The 24-member board, meeting in the South Korean business district of Songdo about 40 miles south of Seoul, voted by consensus to establish the city as home to the budding fund.

The decision, announced Saturday morning in South Korea, followed months of intense lobbying among the six countries vying to host the potentially multibillion-dollar mechanism. In winning, South Korea beat out far more established financial and U.N. centers, including Geneva and Bonn, Germany.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak made an appearance after the vote to shake hands and thank board members -- a sign, both South Korean officials and observers said, of how intently the highest levels of government worked to bring the Green Climate Fund to the country.

"I am very delighted, very happy," Hong-Sang Jung, director-general for international cooperation in South Korea's Ministry of Strategy and Finance, told ClimateWire after the vote. "I was happy that we received broad support from developing countries and several developed countries, as well."

The Green Climate Fund, conceptualized at the 2009 U.N. climate summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, and established a year later, is still being developed and has yet to see any money. Ultimately, supporters hope, it will distribute much of a $100 billion annual commitment that nations made to protect vulnerable countries from extreme weather and develop clean energy.

As part of its winning bid, South Korea pledged $40 million through 2017 to support capacity-building of developing countries. That, in part, is what attracted significant behind-the-scenes support from the United States, which was eager to see an emerging economy take a leading financial role in the fund, according to several sources close to the decision.

U.S. support helped

The United States did not publicly back any country, and officials with the Treasury Department did not respond to a weekend request for comment. But Jung said America's support helped.

"I don't know whether it's appropriate to talk about any particular country, but the U.S. has some influence, so of course we consider their support important," he said.

Environmental groups congratulated South Korea. Athena Ballesteros, a senior associate at the World Resources Institute think tank, said the decision to put the fund in Asia's fourth-largest economy underscores the importance of emerging nations in helping solve climate problems.

"Asia's role in tackling climate change cannot be overstated," Ballesteros said. "The [Green Climate Fund] board's selection of Korea is a significant moment for global climate governance, a recognition that an empowered developing world is critical to ambitious global climate action."

But, she and others warned, it is time for nations to get serious about pledging money to the fund. Throughout the four-day meeting, activists used Twitter to call on nations to #FilltheFund.

Karen Orenstein, international climate director for Friends of the Earth, said her organization was agnostic on which country should be chosen to host the fund and was more focused on the role that civil society groups would assume as well as ensuring the fund is financially healthy. She said she left South Korea disappointed on both counts.

Concerns about a 'dichotomy'

"In some ways, the board meeting felt a bit like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic," she said. "We could be on our way to a world of a 6-degree-Celsius temperature rise -- which would absolutely devastate our planet. In the meantime, developed countries are not willing to put the money on the table needed to actually address this planetary emergency."

Many environmental groups issued statements saying the top priority now should be to pressure wealthy countries to pledge money. But South Korean officials indicated that they think it is time for a system in which emerging economies put in funds, as well.

Jung said discussions on long-term funding are at a crossroads, largely because of the U.N. system that divides nations into two categories: those with responsibility, and those without. That system is set to change by 2020, but Jung said the Green Climate Fund won't operate well with what he called the "dichotomy" built into the U.N. climate system.

"Actually, several emerging countries have capacity, and actually, they are providing ODA [overseas development aid] to other countries," he said. "It seems not right that these countries decline to contribute to climate change although they agree that climate change is urgent and serious, because of that old dichotomy, while they are willing to and do contribute to other ODA areas."

Diplomats are scheduled to meet in Doha, Qatar, for the 18th annual climate summit next month, where they will officially report the choice of South Korea as host country for approval.