Oil block auction in DRC punctures Africa's climate goals

The Virunga National Park, taken from the rim of the crater of the Nyiragongo volcano and looking over the crater of another, extinct volcano, in North Kivu Province, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. [AP Photos]

Sections of a renowned peatland tropical forest in the Congo Basin that plays a crucial role in Africa's climate system go up for oil and gas auction in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Thursday.

The DRC government will auction 30 oil and gas blocks in the Cuvette-Centrale Peatlands in the Congo Basin forest - the world's largest tropical peatland. Peatland soils are known as 'carbon sinks' because packed into them are immense stores of carbon that get released into the atmosphere when the ecosystem is disturbed.