Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has joined a high-level United Nations panel on global sustainability.

The former prime minister has been appointed a decision announced by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon in New York overnight.

Rudd will not be paid for his work with the new 21-member panel on global sustainability, which will meet for the first time within a month. The panel is expected to deliver a final report by the end of next year, ahead of the 2012 UN conference on sustainable development in Rio de Janeiro.