Causes for optimism for nascent CCS
Progress with CCS is slow, but it's still progress, say Gardiner Hill, director of CCS technology at BP, and Lewis Gillies, head of Hydrogen Energy
CARBON capture and storage (CCS) is a technology that will – probably – be indispensible to attempts to prevent climate change. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), it could provide a fifth of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions cuts the world needs to make by 2050. But unlike many other low-carbon technologies – renewables, nuclear and energy efficiency – the idea remains untested. The most frequent criticism of the sector's development is that the demonstration projects needed to prove that CCS can operate safely and economically at scale aren't sufficiently advanced. "There's a gap in our strategy that needs to be plugged immediately," says Gardiner Hill, director of CCS tec
Also in this section
12 March 2026
Role of world’s largest carbon cap-and-trade market under scrutiny as war in Iran threatens to drive EU energy costs to unsustainable levels
10 March 2026
Europe urgently needs to bring more projects to FID, as CCS investors warn they might divert capital to faster-growing regions
9 January 2026
A shift in perspective is needed on the carbon challenge, the success of which will determine the speed and extent of emissions cuts and how industries adapt to the new environment
2 January 2026
This year may be a defining one for carbon capture, utilisation and storage in the US, despite the institutional uncertainty






