Carbon capture and storage has moved from pilot projects to the early stages of industrial deployment, but it’s still uneven by region and sector. The strongest momentum sits in North America and the North Sea, where mature oil and gas infrastructure, supportive policy, and suitable geology line up. The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act supercharged project pipelines with richer tax credits, and Europe’s carbon price plus storage hubs in Norway, the UK, and the Netherlands are pulling in cross-border CO2. Heavy industry—cement, steel, refining, chemicals—now leads many proposals because alternatives to cut process emissions are limited, while gas power with capture is seeing a selective comeback tied to grid reliability needs.
Project reality is more mixed than the headlines. A handful of large facilities consistently capture and store CO2, but many announced projects face delays over permitting, community acceptance, offtake contracts, and midstream bottlenecks like pipelines and shipping. Costs remain highly site-specific: capture from fermentation or gas processing is cheaper than from dilute flue gas; transport and storage add variance depending on distance and reservoir quality. The industry is shifting toward shared “as-a-service” models—open-access pipelines, storage hubs, and third-party operators—to spread risk and bring smaller emitters on board, but bankable contracts and measurement/verification frameworks are still maturing.
What’s next hinges on execution. Over the next three to five years, watch for hub build-outs on the U.S. Gulf Coast and in the North Sea, growth in CO2 shipping to bridge early pipeline gaps, and tougher MRV standards to secure policy incentives and market trust. Expect more integration with low-carbon hydrogen and bioenergy, which can deliver net-negative pathways when paired with storage. The big swing factors are durable policy, permitting speed, and community engagement—if those align, CCS can scale to a meaningful wedge in industrial decarbonization; if not, momentum will stay concentrated in a few favorable regions and niche applications.
Here is our overview pack explaining Carbon Capture and Storage
