ENERGY TRANSITION

Political landscape and policy debates The political environment surrounding CCUS is sometimes contentious. Governments including the UK have committed substantial public funds to support deployment and industrial clusters, signalling belief in CCUS as critical for net zero goals and local economic development.

However, critics argue that subsidies and policy support risk propping up fossil fuel use and may deliver limited climate benefit if not tightly regulated. The heart of the argument is that, rather than being forced to decarbonise their activities, high-polluting industries can instead offload their emissions to CCUS operators.

Greg Jackson, CEO of Octopus Energy, has publicly questioned the value of CCUS for power systems, warning that it can subsidise continued fossil fuel extraction and detract from investment in renewables.

He says:“ The technology has been a gift to the oil and gas industry to carry on what they’ re doing and carry on the fiction that somehow enormous amounts of public money should enable them to keep doing it.”

Companies leading the way Several major corporations are central to CCUS development:

ExxonMobil – the oil and gas company has extensive CCUS operations. CEO Darren Woods has emphasised ExxonMobil’ s commitment to capture and storage as part of its climate strategy, saying it has the ability to provide CCUS solutions for industrial emitters and a responsibility to reduce emissions while meeting energy demand.

Chevron – continues to pursue CCUS alongside other low-carbon technologies, integrating them into broader energy solutions and using existing infrastructure to lower carbon intensity.

BHP and Steel Consortium – the mining and steel giants are collaborating on CCUS feasibility studies in Asia to develop shared infrastructure for hard-to-abate sectors.

Eni – is restructuring its CCUS business and attracting strategic capital from institutional partners like BlackRock’ s GIP to scale project deployment across Europe.

global CCUS capacity operational in early 2025

70 February 2026