Global Underground CO2 Storage Data Offers Hope Amid Rising Emissions

1st December 2025

Scientists have, for the first time, published a comprehensive record of how much carbon dioxide (CO₂) has been permanently stored underground worldwide using carbon capture and storage (CCS). The new report from the London Register of Subsurface CO₂ storage shows that since 1996 over 383 million tonnes of CO₂ have been safely sequestered, roughly equivalent to taking 81 million cars off the road for a year.

A proven, global carbon-management effort. This milestone is not just a hopeful statistic with its evidence that CCS is already working at scale. The storage comes mainly from large projects in the United States, China, Brazil, Australia, and the Middle East, with continued expansion expected through 2024–2025. The report’s authors argue that CCS shouldn’t be viewed as a futuristic or speculative technology, but rather as a proven and scalable tool that can play a real role today in reducing atmospheric CO₂.

The initiative is led by researchers at Imperial College London, collaborating with academic and industry partners globally, including institutions such as Stanford University, MIT, the Global CCS Institute, the Carbon Capture & Storage Association, IEAGHG, and CSIRO in Australia. According to Samuel Krevor, Director of the Register, this report “demonstrates a proven capability and accelerating momentum for geologic storage of CO₂”. “We have found that industrial-scale carbon management is already a reality and can safely sequester CO₂ deep underground, which will be a key strategy, alongside vital efforts to cut emissions, for decarbonising hard-to-abate industries and cutting the total CO₂ in the atmosphere.”

How CCS works and why it matters
CCS operates by capturing CO₂ emitted from power plants and industrial processes, then injecting it deep underground (commonly 1 km or more) where it is securely trapped in geological formations such as depleted oil and gas reservoirs. This makes CCS especially important for sectors that cannot easily shift to renewable electricity, for example, heavy industry like steel or cement production. Many international bodies, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), consider CCS a critical tool for achieving net-zero emissions.

Rapid growth in recent years - The new report identifies three broad phases of CCS growth:

• 1996–2007 ("Pioneering Phase") - when geological storage was first demonstrated as technically feasible.
• 2008–2015 ("North American Expansion") - when the number of storage sites increased significantly, proving injection worked on a larger scale.
• 2016–2023 ("Global Scaling") - when CCS deployment spread globally and storage rates surged.

In 2023 alone, CCS projects stored a record 45.2 million tonnes of CO ₂, an increase of 8.4 million tonnes compared with the previous year. Leading projects include the Seminole San Andres Unit in the US (3.9 MtCO ₂ in 2023) and the Santos Basin Pre-Salt oilfield in Brazil (13.0 MtCO ₂ in 2023). Together, they accounted for more than a third of all CO ₂ stored that year. Although data from 2024 remain incomplete, early indicators point to sustained, perhaps growing, CO ₂ storage, especially in regions such as Brazil and China. To give a sense of scale: the CO ₂ stored in 2023 alone roughly corresponds to the emissions avoided by all renewable energy produced in Australia or Italy that year, or to two thirds of the UK’s renewable-generated emissions avoided in the same period.

The road ahead: what’s needed for climate goals. Despite these encouraging numbers, researchers say much more must be done to reach climate targets. To keep global warming under 1.5 °C, projections suggest storage must scale up dramatically, to at least 1 billion tonnes (a gigatonne) per year by 2050.

The authors emphasise that while CCS is a powerful tool, it should work alongside, not instead of, deep cuts in emissions from energy and industry. CCS can help decarbonise sectors that are difficult to electrify, but the fundamental challenge remains reducing emissions overall. They also argue that renewed policy support and investment will be crucial. As more CCS projects come online, costs are likely to fall, just as they have done in other decarbonisation technologies.

A call for collaboration and commitment
The Register’s global consortium, spanning academia, industry, and government, shows how international cooperation can accelerate deployment of carbon-storage infrastructure. Given the urgency of climate change and the limitations of emission reductions alone, the success of CCS to date offers a “hopeful message”: the technology to capture and store CO ₂ at scale already exists, and with determination, policy support, and continued collaboration, it can significantly contribute to the global fight against climate change.

#Protea #Emissions #Monitoring #CEMS #FTIR #Gas #Analysers #Shipping #Marine #Carbon #Capture

Other Articles