But the government says criticism from rich countries is hypocritical
Up the congo river from Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is a boggy, blooming, buzzing ecosystem that is home to elephants, gorillas and bonobo apes—as well as swarms of insects, many with a taste for human blood. Underfoot is the world’s biggest area of tropical peatlands, consisting of partially decomposed trees and plants. Undisturbed, it holds about three years’ worth of global emissions from fossil fuels, thus mitigating global warming.
It may not remain undisturbed for long. On July 28th and 29th Congo will auction 27 oil-exploration blocks that encompass 1m hectares of peatland and perhaps 11m hectares of rainforest. The government reckons that under these blocks are at least 16bn barrels of oil, worth roughly $650bn.
