This guide aims to provide negotiators and stakeholders at the nineteenth Conference of Parties (COP19) with a synopsis of the key climate finance discussions undertaken during 2013 under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Furthermore, it assesses possible outcomes of the summit in Warsaw which takes place during November 2013. The event and the decisions made there are intended to pave the way for a new global agreement on climate change, to be agreed at the COP21 in Paris, 2015.

Many UNFCCC stakeholders see climate finance as one of the linchpins holding together the entire climate negotiation process, for several reasons. New financial commitments until 2015 will need to be agreed at Warsaw as well as clarity on the pathway to the US$100 billion commitment by 2020, progress on accounting and reporting, and the finance architecture needed. Looking ahead to COP21 in Paris, the guide concludes that Warsaw should provide assurances on finance, while COP20 in Lima in 2014 will have to deliver on mitigation pledges.