Institutions for Environmental Aid ─ Pitfalls and Promise

The discrepancy between levels of environmental quality of rich and poor countrieswill continue as long as large per capita gaps in income persist. Institutions for Environmental Aiddraws on research from economics, international relations, and development assistance, as well asthe growing literature on international environmental relations, to evaluate the effectiveness ofinternational institutions designed to facilitate the transfer of resources from richer to poorercountries, in conjunction with efforts to improve the natural environment.Looking at the GlobalEnvironmental Facility, aid arrangements associated with the Montreal Protocol on the ozone layer,environmental operations of world financial institutions (with respect to aid to Eastern Europe andefforts to save tropical forests), debt-for-nature swaps, and the Rhine River, Institutions forEnvironmental Aid asks whether they increase concern, improve the contractual environment, andincrease national capacity -- functions identified in a companion study, Institutions for theEarth.The authors of this carefully planned collaboration observe that although there is someevidence of effectiveness in these terms, conflicts of interests within and between states, andinvolving nongovernmental and intergovernmental organizations, are frequently debilitating;successful initiatives result from a combination of favorable constellations of interests andcreative, dedicated leadership.Global Environmental Accords series