Manya Rathore
Research expert covering India
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) - statistics & facts
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is seen by many experts as a vital tool in combating climate change. CCS technologies are considered especially important for hard-to-abate industries that cannot be easily replaced by electrification, such as oil and gas, iron and steel, and cement and refining. However, CCS is still very much in its infancy, capturing well under one percent of global COâ‚‚ emissions per year. The industry now faces enormous challenges to scale up and live up to the hype.
What sets CCS apart from carbon removal
CCS involves capturing COâ‚‚ at large point sources, such as exhaust streams from power stations, and transporting it to storage deep underground, thereby reducing emissions to the atmosphere. The majority of COâ‚‚ is currently captured and stored from industrial facilities, with natural gas processing plants accounting for roughly 60 percent of global operating capture capacity. Although the term CCS is often used interchangeably with carbon dioxide removal (CDR), there are differences between the two, with CDR mainly focused on removing historical emissions from the atmosphere.
A pipeline that's growing fast
The capture capacity of operational CCS facilities worldwide increased to around 64 MtCOâ‚‚ per year as of mid-2025, up from 28 MtCOâ‚‚ in 2014. Meanwhile, the capacity of CCS facilities in development has risen to more than 500 MtCOâ‚‚ per year, with over 700 projects in the global CCS pipeline. As of 2024, the United States had the largest number of CCS projects in the pipeline, by far, with 276 across various stages of development, 19 of which were operational. The recent expansion has been driven by developments in global policies and regulations that have made the technology more attractive to investors. This has seen global investment in CCS reach roughly 11 billion U.S. dollars in 2023.
The cost gap standing in the way
Although the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has stressed that CCS will be crucial to reaching net-zero emissions by mid-century, levels of deployment have been slow. The high cost of implementation is one of the biggest challenges facing the scaling up of the industry. To stay aligned with a net-zero pathway, estimates state that annual global investment in CCS will need to average around 500 billion U.S. dollars per year through 2030, a massive increase from current levels. The Americas account for about half of all CCS projects worldwide, but broader international participation will be essential to close the gap.
Despite these challenges, progress is being made. If CCS technologies can mature at a more rapid pace, they could play a key role in the energy transition and helping the world achieve its climate targets.
