This technical expert meeting explored the requirements of "readiness" for climate finance, and the opportunities and limits of "readiness" from a conceptual perspective, drawing on a growing body of work to understand these issues.

All countries (developed and developing alike) confront a fundamental need to reshape the basic incentives that shape all investment and development choices to incentivise low carbon and climate resilient development. 

The need for support for "readiness" for climate finance has gained increasing currency in international efforts to deliver climate finance to developing countries in this context. For example, the governing instrument of the Green Climate Fund (GCF), a new financial mechanism of the Climate Convention (UNFCCC), provides for the fund to support readiness activities. 

The emerging focus on "readiness" activities seems to recognise that planning for climate change is no easy task, and programming and using climate finance well is often a complex undertaking. Readiness activities can support developing countries to build their capacity to access and programme finance in support of activities that will allow them to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Other observers are less convinced by arguments over the need for readiness finance.