The Democratic Republic of Congo made a deal with a company from the United States to sell the carbon credits from their rainforest and peatlands in the Congo Basin.
Climate, a company that provides information about the weather, said it will help DR Congo protect the Basin by stopping the cutting down of trees. The agreement is meant to keep more than 100 million tons of carbon dioxide in the forest from being released into the atmosphere.
In the last few years, environmentalists have been worried about the cutting down of thousands of acres of trees in the Congo Basin.
The rainforest is the second-biggest in the world and it soaks up more than 1. 5 billion tonnes of CO₂ every year. Experts say it’s really important to protect the Congo Basin in order to help stop climate change and save different kinds of plants and animals.
Climate said it will also help the central African country to make a list of carbon emissions – a system through which the government will keep track and sell credits.
dClimate will rent the rights to store carbon for 10 years, but they won’t buy or rent the land. This will protect the country’s control over the land and the rights of the people who live there. This was announced on Tuesday after signing the agreement at the UN COP28 climate summit in Dubai.
During the ten years they worked together, the credits they made will be worth about $1 billion, said Siddhartha Jha, who co-founded dClimate, to Bloomberg.
Climate will keep 10-20% of the money it makes.
To get credits, the project must show that the basin can lower emissions.
The Congo basin sucks up more than 1. 5 billion tons of CO₂ every year, says the UN. This makes it one of the most important places for storing carbon in the world.
Most of the area is in DR Congo and a small part is in five other countries.
Date:
DR Congo signs contract for Congo basin carbon credits
