{"id":62177,"date":"2023-09-13T17:45:14","date_gmt":"2023-09-13T15:45:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=62177"},"modified":"2024-12-16T18:29:15","modified_gmt":"2024-12-16T17:29:15","slug":"insuring-the-future-by-protecting-the-congo-rainforest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/62177\/insuring-the-future-by-protecting-the-congo-rainforest\/","title":{"rendered":"Insuring the future by protecting the Congo rainforest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Fossil fuel companies are gearing up to bid for the right to drill for oil and gas in the Congo rainforest<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

\"Don't
Activists are at the 2023 Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous – the biggest annual insurance and reinsurance conference – to urge insurance companies to stop supporting the climate crisis. Oil companies want to drill in the Congo rainforest, destroying communities and biodiversity, and insurance companies shouldn\u2019t prop them up.\nBanners read “Don’t insurance rainforest destruction” and “Ask me why I don’t want oil in the Congo rainforest”.<\/figcaption>
\u00a9 Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where large parts of the Congo Basin rainforest – the world’s second biggest intact rainforest<\/a> – lie, is auctioning licences for oil and gas exploration, which it claims will help Congolese people by providing investment and income to boost the economy. Instead, it will cause untold damage to the forest and the ancestral lands of Indigenous Peoples<\/a>, as well as being really bad news for the climate.<\/p>\n\n

However, there\u2019s a chance that the oil projects won\u2019t even get off the ground. Greenpeace Africa has just published a new analysis that shows it will be very difficult and expensive<\/a>, if not impossible, for oil companies to get insurance cover. And without insurance, these projects simply won\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n\n

\u2018The worst place to drill for oil\u2019<\/h2>\n\n

The DRC government plans to auction the exploration rights for 30 oil and gas blocks, covering an area larger than the United Kingdom<\/a>. Some of the blocks overlap with protected areas<\/a>, including Virunga National Park, a World Heritage Site that\u2019s already threatened by armed conflict and now by the prospect of drilling.<\/p>\n\n

\"Virunga
View of the Virunga National Park from the ICCN (Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature) headquarter in Rumangabo.\n<\/figcaption>
\u00a9 Greenpeace \/ Jan-Joseph Stok<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Other blocks are in the peatlands of the Cuvette Centrale<\/a>, which store about 30 gigatons of carbon, equivalent to three years of global fossil fuel emissions<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

\n

Africa's peatlands are vital for biodiversity and climate stability.

They store 30 BILLION TONNES OF CARBON in the Congo Basin alone, making them crucial for mitigating climate change.

However, they continue to face threats from oil, logging, and infrastructure development.

\ud83e\uddf5<\/p>— Greenpeace Africa (@Greenpeaceafric) September 12, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote>