CCUS: A Panacea or a Placebo in the fight against climate change?

Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) is a crucial technology for achieving carbon neutrality, but it faces significant challenges. Despite substantial investments and policy support, CCUS projects have underperformed due to technical difficulties, high costs, and controversies surrounding the fossil fuel industry's involvement. The effectiveness and feasibility of CCUS in reducing carbon emissions remain uncertain. This viewpoint provides a comprehensive analysis of the current state of CCUS technology, examining its potential to reduce carbon emissions, the challenges hindering its deployment, and the strategies needed to overcome these barriers. We discuss the need for a combinatorial approach to unlock CCUS's full potential, and also emphasize the importance of selecting optimal CO₂ utilization pathways to maximize economic benefits and CO₂ absorption. Although CCUS faces technical, economic, and social barriers, it can still play a valuable role in mitigating emissions from hard-to-abate sectors when supported by comprehensive strategies and collaborative efforts among governments, industries, and research institutions. By addressing these challenges and investing in innovation, CCUS can contribute to achieving carbon neutrality and building a sustainable, low-carbon future.