Blending the urgency of a climate thriller with the insight of a financial exposé, the story follows three students whose lives are upended by a devastating flood in the fictional country of Demba. Determined to make a difference, they launch a carbon project—only to confront a series of maddening contradictions embedded deep within the global climate finance system. These aren’t just plot twists; they are 25 real-world paradoxes the authors have encountered in decades of work across carbon markets, journalism, and climate entrepreneurship. As the students travel between idealism and pragmatism, north and south, backroom deals and public scrutiny, they…