Negotiators at climate talks in Bali on Monday agreed on the details of a fund to help the most vulnerable nations adapt to climate change.

The adaptation fund, generated through a 2% levy on transactions between parties participating in the Kyoto Protocol's emissions-trading mechanism, has been accumulating for several years. But it has not yet been activated because countries could not agree on which body would approve the projects to be included in the scheme. They have now settled on the United Nation's Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The decision is a victory for poor countries and small island states, which had argued that the fund, currently administered by a multilateral environmental-funding agency based in Washington DC, should have its own board and governance system. So far, the emissions-trading mechanism has generated US$67 million for adaptation measures.

Meanwhile, scientists in Bali called on governments to stabilize global emissions well below 450 parts per million of carbon-dioxide equivalents in the long term, their most concrete recommendation to politicians so far. Higher concentrations would mean that climate change may become unmanageable, they warned in a formal declaration issued on 6 December.