One of the achievements of the UNFCCC negotiations in Cancun was the decision to establish a Green Climate Fund (GCF). The authors argue that while many are looking to the establishment of this fund as the solution to adequately and appropriately address climate finance, others caution that ambitious steps need to be taken to avoid the ‘Green Fund’ turning out to be an ‘Empty Fund’ whose function is limited to attaining the buy-in of developing countries into a binding international climate policy regime. This paper aims to offer an early contribution to the debate by highlighting some of the more pressing design issues and describing the implications of these features. The Fund is assessed according to the following three core functions: * Governance: how the funds will be managed * Sourcing: how funds will be raised – who will pay and how * Disbursement: how funds will be delivered and distributed