Climate Politics
Congo’s President Rejects US Call to Halt Oil Bids in Peatlands
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- Congo and US to form working group by COP27 next month
Joe Biden speaks with Felix Tshisekedi
Photographer: Evan Vucci/AFP/Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Felix Tshisekedi rejected a request by the US to halt bidding on oil blocks in one of the world’s most important carbon sinks.
The central African nation has the largest tropical peatlands and is home to most of the Congo Basin, the world’s second-biggest tropical rainforest after the Amazon. The basin’s peatlands alone contain about 29 billion tons of carbon, equivalent to about three years of worldwide carbon-dioxide emission.