Carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technologies provide significant decarbonisation potential and their widespread deployment is an integral part of a lower-cost and more attainable net zero future. In the IEA Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario (Net Zero Scenario), some 5.9 Gt of CO₂ are captured and stored in 2050. This requires significant expansion of dedicated CO₂ storage capacity since today around 10 Mt of CO₂ is injected annually into dedicated CO₂ storage sites.

For CCUS technologies to achieve their CO₂ management potential, a significant and expedient scale-up of CO₂ storage from the megatonne to gigatonne scale is required. Access to effective and secure CO₂ storage enables widespread deployment of CO₂ capture technologies during energy transitions, making it the most pivotal component of the CO₂ management value chain. Without confidence in CO₂ storage availability, the decarbonisation potential of CCUS technologies is significantly reduced. Additionally, technology-based CO₂ removals – bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) and direct air capture with storage (DACS) – require CO₂ storage.

A gap is developing between ambitions to develop CO₂ capture and ambitions to develop CO₂ storage. Without urgent and concerted action by the public and private sectors to accelerate CO₂ storage assessment and development, this gap may continue to grow, risking negative final investment decisions (FIDs) on capture facilities or inefficient investment.

To deploy CO₂ storage on a gigatonne scale, storage resources need to be assessed and developed, storage activities need to be regulated, a market for CO₂ storage needs to be built, and policy needs to be designed to support this. The energy sector should consider the role CO₂ storage will play in its decarbonisation. Storage deployment can be supported by stakeholders across the energy sector and both the public and private sectors can play a role. To that end, the IEA has identified several major technical, economic, policy, and legal and regulatory considerations that feed into the deployment of CO₂ storage infrastructure.