Industry needs a portfolio of solutions

CCS can address process emissions in sectors such as cement, steel, and chemicals.

Industrial decarbonisation requires different technologies across varying sectors and processes. While some manufacturing processes can easily be electrified, heavy industries often demand high-temperature heat or generate non-combustion CO₂ emissions (process emissions).

For these hard-to-abate sectors, CCS provides a direct and practical mitigation pathway. CCS acts to decarbonise the production of foundational materials required for the broader economy. This ensures that the essential materials needed for the global economy – and for building clean energy infrastructure itself – can be manufactured with a lower climate impact.

Connecting industrial facilities to reliable CO₂ transport and permanent geological storage is critical for large-scale deployment. Developing shared CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure allows multiple facilities to utilise integrated industrial hubs or clusters. This shared-infrastructure model creates economies of scale, significantly lowering the economic and logistical barriers to deployment for individual plants and accelerating regional decarbonisation efforts.

 

Electrification must reduce emissions

Its climate benefit depends on the emissions intensity of the power system supply.

CCS can play a targeted role in the energy transition by reducing emissions from power plants where appropriate, supporting firm low-carbon power, and addressing emissions from industrial supply chains that enable electrification. While electrifying sectors like transportation and industry is a critical climate strategy, it does not guarantee decarbonisation if energy demand shifts to an unabated power grid. Ramping up global electrification to 35% by 2035 requires a rapid expansion of generation capacity. In regions currently dependent on high carbon-intensity power grids – particularly developing economies with young fossil fleets that cannot be affordably retired early – deploying CCS on existing assets provides a practical pathway. This approach curbs emissions while new zero- and low-carbon infrastructure, such as renewables, nuclear, and natural gas with CCS, scales to meet the increased load.

Beyond direct abatement, maintaining system reliability will be even more important as more of the economy depends on the electric grid. CCS units on fossil or biomass power plants capture 90% to 95% of facility emissions while delivering dispatchable power needed to balance variable wind and solar power. This grid-stabilising role will remain essential in the near to mid-term until long-duration energy storage (LDES) technologies mature and scale.

Policy frameworks can distinguish between abated and unabated fossil generation, including through approaches that link new capacity to future emissions abatement commitments.

 

 

Climate stabilisation requires carbon removal

To address unavoidable and legacy emissions, engineered carbon dioxide removal (CDR) approaches – such as direct air capture and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage – are essential. These technologies extract CO₂ directly from ambient air or biogenic sources and store it permanently in geological reservoirs. This counterbalances residual emissions from the hardest to abate sectors, while also enabling net-negative emissions in the future that reduce the stock of historical CO₂ in the atmosphere.

Deploying CDR at a climate-relevant scale relies on access to reliable CO₂ transport and permanent geological storage. The transport and storage infrastructure being developed for industrial and power sector CCS will be invaluable for engineered CDR as well. By building these integrated storage hubs and transport clusters today, CCS projects are establishing the foundational network that can also support engineered CDR facilities. This lowers the economic and logistical barriers for future CDR projects and bridges immediate abatement from CCS with large scale CDR in the long term.

CDR is not an excuse to delay the energy transition. Its role is to supplement required emissions reductions that must be delivered through efficiency improvements, renewables, nuclear, CCS, and other mitigation technologies and approaches. At the same time, development of engineered CDR should not be deferred as it must be ready to deploy at scale to help meet mid-century climate targets.

 

Deployment depends on public confidence

Strong regulation, monitoring, transparent evidence, and meaningful engagement are essential.

Successful deployment of carbon management technologies relies fundamentally on public confidence, enabled by strong regulatory frameworks, rigorous site monitoring, and transparent reporting. Meaningful engagement with local communities and stakeholders helps build trust that projects are developed safely, equitably, and with clear environmental accountability.

International climate processes can help strengthen this foundational trust, providing a space to clarify where and how carbon management best contributes to overarching climate goals. International dialogue offers a critical platform to address public concerns, share regulatory best practices, and establish the shared expectations necessary for the responsible scale-up of carbon management worldwide.