Illuminating comment from a country about carbon (6)
I believe the answer is:
apercu
'illuminating comment' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'a country about carbon' is the wordplay.
'country' becomes 'peru' (Peru is an example**).
'about' is an insertion indicator.
'carbon' becomes 'c' ('C' can be a synonym of 'carbon').
'peru' going around 'c' is 'percu'.
'a'+'percu'='APERCU'
'from' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for apercu that I've seen before include "insightful comment" , "9 [WHATS THE POINT]" , "Short synopsis, precis" , "Glimpse" , "Illuminating or entertaining point (from French)" .)