The first ever fully audited account of underground carbon dioxide (CO₂ ) storage has just been made public. Our new report on carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects is a big step forward in that battle against climate change. The London Register of Subsurface CO₂ Storage disclosed that since 1996, over 383 million tons of CO₂ have been successfully sequestered underground. This value is outmatched by the emissions of about 81 million new, gasoline-powered passenger cars driven for a full year.
The U.S. is one of the world leaders in global carbon storage, which has seen a truly impressive 17% compound annual growth rate since starting. With 2023 bringing a milestone 45 million tons per annum in storage capacity, the CCS movement has been decidedly red hot. These projects play a crucial role in preventing CO₂ emissions from industrial processes and power plants from entering the atmosphere by capturing and injecting the gas underground.
CO 2 is separated from other gases and ultimately injected into deep geological formations at depths of at least one kilometer. These formations often consist of long-established depleted oil and gas reservoirs, where the methane can be trapped for geologic timescales. The first successful CO₂ injection took place in August 2025, paving the way toward exciting innovations in this field.
The Northern Lights Joint Venture (JV), co-owned by Equinor, TotalEnergies, and Shell, stands out as a global leader in CCS. The Norwegian government has provided substantial backing for the project, covering about 80% of the costs for its first phase. Furthermore, the Phase 2 expansion received €131 million from the EU funding program Connecting Europe Facility for Energy (CEF Energy) in June 2024. Situated on Øygarden, close to Bergen, Northern Lights is hailed as the globe’s first cross-border CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure.
Nearly all initiatives for global CO₂ storage stem from these US- and China-based projects. Brazil, Australia and the Gulf States all play a major role in these efforts. We expect to see strong growth in CO₂ storage in 2024 and 2025. This underscores the tremendous potential for this technology to be part of the solution for addressing climate change.
Experts emphasize the significance of these developments.
“The central message from our report is that CCS works, demonstrating a proven capability and accelerating momentum for geologic storage of CO₂,” said Professor Samuel Krevor.
Philip Ringrose added,
“There has been much speculation about CCS over the last decades—but here we document the actual progress.”
He further noted,
“Global carbon storage has seen a 17% annual growth rate since 1996 and by 2023 the storage rate was 45 million tons per annum.”
Ringrose concluded,
“Carbon removal and storage clearly needs to continue to grow in support of climate action plans—but now we can build on a firm foundation… Carbon in the ground!”
Professor Krevor also stated,
“We have found that industrial-scale carbon management is already a reality and can safely sequester CO₂ deep underground, which will be a key strategy—alongside vital efforts to cut emissions—for decarbonizing hard-to-abate industries and cutting the total CO₂ in the atmosphere.”