· 3 min read
⭐ Enjoy illuminem? Join our Community, with the best of what we offer!
illuminem summarises for you the essential news of the day. Read the full story on The Straits Times or enjoy below:
🗞️ Driving the news: A landmark 800-page scientific assessment on the Congo Basin, Earth’s largest tropical carbon sink, warns that the world has about a decade to prevent irreversible damage that could flip the region from a massive CO₂ absorber into a net emitter
🔭 The context: The Congo Basin absorbs 600 million tonnes of CO₂ per year (equal to Germany’s annual emissions)
• But pressures from slash-and-burn agriculture, logging, charcoal production, and rapid population growth are accelerating forest loss
• In some areas of the Amazon — once a parallel sink — deforestation has already pushed ecosystems past a tipping point and turned them into sources of emissions. Scientists fear the Congo Basin could follow
🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Losing the Congo Basin would mean losing:
• Earth’s most important tropical carbon sink, crucial for stabilising global temperatures
• A continental rainfall engine: ~70% of local rainfall recycles into the broader African climate system
• A natural regulator that supports agriculture and water security for hundreds of millions across East, West, Central and North Africa
• If degradation continues unchecked, global climate targets become dramatically harder — if not impossible — to meet.
⏭️ What’s next: Scientists call for:
• Sustainable agriculture reforms to replace slash-and-burn practices
• Stronger governance and anti-deforestation enforcement
• Major increases in climate finance
• Rapid expansion of carbon and biodiversity credit markets, including support from Brazil’s new Tropical Forest Forever Facility, which has secured US$5 billion in pledges ahead of COP30
• The Democratic Republic of Congo — home to vast stretches of forest and severe economic pressures — stands to benefit the most if financing mechanisms scale
💬 One quote: “If we don’t get a handle on it in the next decade, it will be out of control.” — Dr Lee White, former Gabon environment minister
📈 One stat: The Congo Basin once stored 4.5 billion tonnes of carbon — nearly equal to the full annual emissions of the United States
Explore carbon credit purchases, total emissions, and climate targets of thousands of companies on Data Hub™ — the first platform designed to help sustainability providers generate sales leads!
Click for more news covering the latest on biodiversity
