Joe Biden pledged $1bn in new US funding to help developing countries cope with climate change and urged development banks to step up their lending, at a virtual gathering of leaders of the world’s biggest industrialised nations that included China’s climate envoy.

At the meeting of the Major Economies Forum on energy and climate on Thursday, Biden announced the plan to contribute the money to the UN-led Green Climate Fund, which finances clean energy and climate resilience projects in developing countries.

Separately, he promised $500mn over five years for a fund to tackle deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, watched by Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The financial pledge for the Amazon Fund would require approval from the US Congress, however. Republican lawmakers have opposed Biden’s previous efforts to boost US international climate funding.