Hundreds of scientists at the United Nations COP28 climate summit on Sunday launched a research coalition aimed at correcting a historic lack of information about the Congo River basin and its rainforest, the second largest in the world. The Science Panel for the Congo Basin, backed by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, aims to issue a report in 2025 that offers the most detailed scientific assessment to date about the Congo Basin. "We are talking about a unique ecosystem that supports hundreds of millions of people, and also it plays a crucial role in the regulation of the Earth's climate," said Raphaël Tshimanga, co-chair of the panel and a water expert at University of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.