2025 has been a year of progress, but also of uncertainty for global climate action. Amid shifting geopolitics and economic headwinds, the path to net zero is anything but straight. Yet one thing remains unchanged and abundantly clear: carbon capture and storage is essential, not optional.
In the flagship Global Status of CCS report – set to be released on 9 October – the Global CCS Institute highlights a year-on-year increase in the number of operational projects. Worldwide, the total number of projects across all stages of development is well over 700 and growing.
These figures highlight a technology moving from promise to delivery, but still short of the gigatonne scale required to limit global warming. This gap must be urgently addressed through clear government policies, supportive carbon markets, and international collaboration, conditions which leading nations are increasingly creating to accelerate CCS uptake.
Around the world, governments and companies are pursuing diverse approaches: some regions are driving deployment with direct support for infrastructure, while others are laying the policy and regulatory foundations needed to attract private investment. This regional diversity reflects different priorities and market conditions, but all trends point in the same direction: CCS scaling up globally. From Europe’s expanding networks, to Saudi Arabia’s first regional CCS hub, to the United States leading with federal tax incentives, CCS deployment is steadily advancing.
Bolstering this shift on the consumer side is the growing call for low-carbon products. Consumers and industries alike are signalling they want solutions that cut emissions, and markets are responding. Norway’s Brevik cement plant – Europe’s first to deliver commercial low-carbon cement using CCS – sold out its entire 2025 production within months of opening. This is a clear signal that CCS is not just about climate targets; it is about meeting real market demand. Enabled by transport and storage infrastructure like Northern Lights, Brevik shows how collaboration across the value chain can turn ambition into tangible outcomes.
Perhaps the most striking shift in 2025 has been the growing financial maturity of CCS. For the first time, CCS secured non-recourse debt financing for large-scale projects such as Net Zero Teesside and the Northern Endurance Partnership in the UK. These milestones, supported by robust policy frameworks, offtake agreements, and evolving insurance products, mark CCS’s emergence as a bankable, scalable opportunity. Private capital is entering the space in earnest, offering a critical vote of confidence that CCS can deliver.
The direction of travel for CCS is clear, but the pace must accelerate. Industrial emissions remain a major contributor to global totals, and gigatonne-scale deployment of CCS is essential to achieving net zero targets. Policy, finance, and industry must work together to close gaps, build infrastructure, and speed deployment.
The lesson from 2025 is that progress is real, but it must be sustained. CCS is not aspirational, it is essential. Reaching the scale of carbon management required to safeguard our climate while sustaining the industries that underpin modern life will require all of us to work together and stay the course.
Jarad Daniels, CEO, Global CCS Institute
