* First board meeting to take place in Geneva, Aug. 23-25
* Meeting delayed three times due to disputes over seats
By Nina Chestney
LONDON, Aug 2 (Reuters) - The first board meeting of the United Nations' Green Climate Fund will be held on August 23 to 25, an official at the fund's interim secretariat confirmed on Thursday, five months later than it was originally planned.
The fund is designed to help channel up to ${esc.dollar}100 billion a year in climate finance by 2020 to help developing countries adapt to climate change.
However, the fund is an empty shell after last year's U.N. climate talks failed to make solid progress on sources of finance and the global economic crisis has left rich nations reluctant to commit cash, prompting fears the money may not emerge in time.
The board's first meeting will be held in Geneva, Switzerland, and will start work on the board's organisation and operations and the fund's first workplan.
"We are ready and set to go for the first board meeting on August 23 to 25 in Geneva," Henning Wuester, senior manager at the fund's interim secretariat, told Reuters.
"We hope to have at least one more meeting before Qatar," he added, referring to an additional board meeting which could take place before a major U.N. climate conference in Doha starts on November 26.
One of the key issues for the board this year will be selecting the fund's host country. Germany, Mexico, Namibia, Poland, the Republic of Korea and Switzerland have all made official requests to host the fund.
A decision on which country will be the host will be presented to the Doha meeting at the end of the year, the interim secretariat said in a statement on Thursday.
Disagreements about who should sit on the fund's governing panel have delayed its first meeting to five months later than it was originally planned.
Originally set to take place in April, the meeting was postponed three times as regional groups of countries thrashed out which nations would represent them on the board, which will have 24 members and 24 alternatives coming equally from both developing and developed countries.
There were fears that any further delays in the board's organisation could slow the process towards the fund's launch, which is expected in 2013, as well as run the risk of undermining U.N. climate talks in Qatar.
The meeting was first pushed back until the end of May after European Union countries disagreed over the allocation of seats to its member states. Thirteen countries requested a seat, wanting to ensure they have a say in the funding decisions.
The meeting was then delayed a second time in May and finally pushed back to the end of August after the fund's interim secretariat awaited nominations from the Asia, Pacific and Latin America and Caribbean regions.
The secretariat finally received the last of those nominations on Wednesday, Wuester said. (Additional reporting by Susanna Twidale; Editing by Alison Birrane)
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