How "Green" is Stimulus Funding?

A new report by HSBC, a global banking leader, indicates that China and the United States have allocated the greatest amounts of their respective economic stimulus packages for green projects.

According to a story in The Economist ("Greenstanding," April 4, 2009), China will spend just over $200 billion on green projects while the U.S. will spend over $90 billion.  Other large spenders, according to the HSBC report, are South Korea at $30.7 billion, Germany at $13.8 billion, and Japan at $12.4 billion.

Despite constant chatter from the British and French governments about their commitment to green projects, spending from Paris will only amount to $7.1 billion while London will spend a paltry $2.1 billion.  

Has anyone checked these numbers with French President Nicholas Zarkozy or U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown?  Mssrs. Zarkozy and Brown like to bang on and on about the need to address climate change, but apparently their governments' piggybanks are empty when it comes to green stimulus spending.