UN Climate Change News, 30 October 2026 - Panama has consolidated a national roadmap for carbon markets, bringing years of technical groundwork, private sector engagement and public dialogue into a single pathway for market-based climate action. The milestone comes as countries prepare for COP 31 in Türkiye, where cooperation on carbon markets under the Paris Agreement will again be on the agenda.
Getting here took time. Since 2017, the Ministry of Environment has worked with the Collaborative Instruments for Ambitious Climate Action (CiACA) initiative, implemented through the UN Climate Change Regional Collaboration Centre for Latin America (RCC Latin America) with support from the Government of Germany. Step by step, Panama moved from early assessments of carbon pricing options and a programme engaging companies to measure and offset their emissions, to a national roadmap linked to Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, and most recently a draft Executive Decree to establish a National Carbon Market System.
A national consultation helped shape that last step. Around 300 stakeholders from more than 50 organizations, spanning government, companies, academia, Indigenous Peoples and civil society, took part in 12 workshops across seven provinces, strengthening ownership of the framework and readiness to engage in international carbon markets. The process built on years of work with the private sector: through the Reduce Tu Huella - Corporativo programme, more than 200 organizations have registered to measure and reduce their emissions, and 20 have committed to carbon neutrality by 2050.
"Initiatives like CiACA address real, country-tailored needs," said Javier Martínez, Head of the Mitigation Department at the Climate Change Directorate of the Ministry of Environment (MiAMBIENTE).
For other countries in Central America and Latin America weighing similar instruments, Panama's experience offers a practical reference: carbon markets cannot be built overnight, and readiness depends as much on institutions, knowledge and trust as on designing the mechanisms themselves.
Read the full case study here.
