The Carbon Gap in South America

As carbon markets expand across South America, they promise to support climate action by compensating emissions and financing conservation. But on the ground, this promise often clashes with reality.

From forest fires turning carbon sinks into emission sources, to agroindustry using carbon credits to greenwash deforestation, the continent faces a growing carbon gap between what is reported and what is really happening.

This project by Climate Tracker América Latina investigates how carbon markets and forest loss are reshaping climate policy across Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, and Paraguay. Through five in-depth stories, it examines key challenges: unregulated market expansion, emissions underreporting, and the exclusion of communities and ecosystems that are central to long-term carbon storage.

As the world looks toward COP30 in the Brazilian Amazon, this series brings forward urgent questions about who wins, who loses, and what it takes for climate solutions to truly deliver.