Dame Vivienne Westwood is donating STG1 million (NZ$2 million) to battle climate change.

The British fashion designer, a renowned environmentalist, is concerned that cash set aside for the issue is yet to be relinquished by governments.

"Governments ... are so slow that we can't wait for them anymore," she told British newspaper The Times.

"We have to get this thing moving and hope that they'll join in."

The designer was talking before The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa.

She handed her donation to Cool Earth, an organisation which aims to protect areas of the rainforest from logging.

"I'm just a very practical person," the designer said.

"So I took as much as I could afford from my company. I'd never done it before because we've always been putting money back into it."

- AP