On April 21, a collection of banks, construction companies and African governments met in London to plan what would be the world’s largest capacity dam: the Grand Inga Dam on the Congo River.

“The banks and the City of London see that Grand Inga is serious. The G8 countries are behind it because they can get UN clean development mechanism credits to offset their [carbon] emissions. Chinese, Brazilian and Canadian dam-building companies, as well as the World Bank, are all interested,” said Gerald Doucet, secretary general of the thinktank World Energy Council, which organized the meeting.

Aside from the ineffectiveness and immorality of carbon trading, it is important to note that dams in tropical regions can give off up to 40 times more greenhouse gases than an equivalent coal plant.

The 150m (450 ft), 40,000 MW dam would generate twice as much energy as China’s devastating Three Gorges Dam. It would export elecrticity away from the Congo to Africa’s industrial manufacturing centers, particularly in South Africa, and is hoped by planners to double Africa’s electric generating capacity.

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