For more than three decades, the impact of aid on the global environment has been the subject of vigorous protest and debate. With billions spent on environmental aid each year, this text seeks to understand why aid is given, how effective it is, and whether aid is actually going to the places with the greatest environmental need.

By evaluating the likely environment impact of over 400,000 development projects by more than 50 donors to over 170 recipient nations between 1970 and 2001, Greening Aid represents a unique, state of the art picture of what is happening in foreign assistance, and its impact on the environment. Greening Aid explains major trends and shifts over the last three decades, ranks donors according to their performance, and offers case studies which compare and contrast donors and types of environmental aid.

1. Introduction
2. Contending Theories on Environmental Aid
3. Which Donor Nations are Giving Aid to Protect the Environment and Why?
4. Outsourcing National Interest: The Puzzle of Why Nations Delegate Environmental Aid to Multilateral Agencies
5. To Areas of Need or Geopolitical Interest? How is Environmental Aid Allocated Among Recipient Countries?
6. The Local and the Global: Case Studies of Four Types of Environmental Aid
7. Conclusion: Two Maps of the World
Appendix: Data Sources, Measures, Methods, and Coding