Democratic Republic of Congo accuses West for pressurizing on oil exploration.
The west has come under fire from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for putting pressure on it to stop oil and gas exploration in the rainforest of the Congo basin while continuing to look for fossil fuels in their own nations.
The only remaining rainforest on Earth that absorbs more carbon than it releases is the Congo basin, which is second only to the Amazon in size and of which more than half is situated in the DRC.
The DRC announced in July that certain rainforest oil and gas permits would be put up for auction.
In addition to habitats for critically endangered gorillas and the largest tropical peatlands in the world, which can store three years’ worth of global fossil fuel emissions, the blocks up for sale include parts of the Virunga National Park.
Conservationists have proposed alternative livelihood projects or even considered competing for the licences in response to the auction, which has triggered behind-the-scenes efforts to stop oil and gas exploration in the DRC’s crucial ecosystems.
But ahead of Cop27, where climate justice will be a major topic, DRC officials have defended the auction, saying it is crucial for the economic development of one of the world’s poorest nations.
Additionally, they have emphasised how nations like the US, UK, and Norway are pushing them to refrain from drilling while still conducting their own fossil fuel exploration.
At a pre-Cop27 conference in Kinshasa earlier this month, the DRC’s environment minister, Eve Bazaiba, flatly rejected a proposal by US climate envoy John Kerry to cancel part of the fossil resource auctions.
Nobody can pressure us, according to Bazaiba, who told Reuters.
“A country is not prohibited from emitting CO2 for development purposes by any international agreement, not even the Paris Agreement. This is not an organisation where a colonialist rules over a colony. We won’t do it if we believe it could harm the environment.”
As Democratic Republic of Congo accuses West for pressurizing on oil exploration, Félix Tshisekedi, president of the DRC, stated at an FT Africa event last week that the world needed to recognise the Congo basin forest as a valuable resource and that it must work with his country to safeguard it.
“We have never said that we will endanger the globe. Nobody is assisting us, he said.
