Capture, store, utilise

It won’t work without CCS. That is the view of the International Energy Agency (IEA), for example. It regards carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) as essential on the path to climate neutrality. In most of the scenarios put forward by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), CCS is also a necessary component for offsetting residual emissions from industry or agriculture and achieving international climate targets. Examining global CCS projects also emphasises the technology's high and ever-increasing relevance. In 2025, 77 projects were in operation worldwide, with a storage capacity of 64 million tonnes of CO₂ per year. The Global CCS Institute expects this figure to rise to 337 million tonnes by 2030 alone. In 2025, 47 plants were in the planning stage, 297 were at an advanced stage of development and 313 were in the early stages of development. 

China is one of the key pioneers in this field. There, CCS is primarily driven by the coal industry in an effort to decarbonise the country’s power plants. The aim is to reduce China's emissions by 15 per cent through this method. According to a recent Australian study, there are currently approx. 40 plants in operation in China, six are being built and nine are in the planning stage. China has also invested heavily in carbon capture research and has developed technologies that can, for example, achieve CO₂ concentrations in flue gas of less than five per cent while significantly reducing the cost of CO₂ capture. In the Ningxia project, for example, these costs are just 30 dollars per tonne of CO₂. China is also a pioneer in the use of captured CO₂, e.g. in the production of methanol or synthesis gas for the manufacture of chemical products and fuels.

Our researchers, too, see CCS as a key component of climate protection, particularly in industries and sectors where decarbonisation is challenging and emissions cannot be prevented. However, by global standards, both Europe and Germany are still in the early stages of development in this regard. If we exclude Norway and Iceland, only three of the 77 CCS plants in operation worldwide are located in the EU. It is time we started implementing this technology in the EU, including Germany. After all, time is of the essence when it comes to climate protection – a fact made all the more apparent by the recent heatwave. This issue shows what is currently happening in Germany with a view to CCS.

Anke Herold
CEO, Oeko-Institut
a.herold@oeko.de