12 Dec 2025

🪶 Wisdom Drop–58

🌍 Capturing Carbon, Buying Time: India’s CCUS Roadmap for a Net-Zero Future

📅 Post: 12 December 2025
📚 GS Mains Mapping:

• GS Paper III: Environment, Climate Change, Energy Transitions, Industrial Policy

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Introduction

Climate action is often framed as a race against time. For India, it is also a negotiation with reality. As the world’s third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide, India stands at a difficult intersection of development needs and environmental responsibility. Its Net-Zero by 2070 commitment reflects ambition, but ambition alone cannot dismantle the economic structures that power livelihoods, infrastructure, and growth.

In this context, India’s first-ever Research and Development Roadmap for Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) marks a strategic pivot. Prepared by the Department of Science and Technology, the roadmap signals a shift from idealistic transitions to pragmatic decarbonisation. It acknowledges that while renewables are essential, they are not sufficient. Some emissions cannot be wished away; they must be managed, captured, and transformed.

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Why CCUS Matters for India

India emits roughly 2.6 gigatonnes of CO₂ annually, a figure closely tied to its industrial base and energy structure. Renewable energy expansion has been rapid and impressive, yet it addresses only a fraction of total emissions. The majority arise from sectors that are structurally hard to decarbonise.

Industries such as steel, cement, fertilisers, chemicals, oil and gas, and coal-based power form the backbone of India’s manufacturing and infrastructure ecosystem. These sectors rely on high-temperature processes, chemical reactions, and legacy assets that cannot be electrified overnight without severe economic disruption.

For India, the climate challenge is therefore not about choosing between growth and sustainability. It is about sequencing transition intelligently. CCUS offers a bridge solution, allowing emissions reduction to proceed alongside industrial continuity. In doing so, it buys time for cleaner technologies to mature and scale.

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Understanding CCUS: Beyond Carbon Capture

Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage is not a single technology but an integrated system. It involves capturing carbon dioxide at the point of emission, transporting it safely, and either storing it permanently or using it as a resource.

The utilisation dimension is particularly significant for India. Captured CO₂ can be converted into green urea and fertilisers, incorporated into construction materials, or used to produce chemicals such as methanol, ethanol, and polymers. These pathways transform carbon from a liability into an input, aligning climate action with industrial value creation.

Storage remains equally crucial. Permanent sequestration of CO₂ in geological formations ensures that emissions are not merely delayed but effectively neutralised over the long term.

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India’s Geological Advantage

A critical strength highlighted in the roadmap is India’s vast geological storage potential. Estimates suggest up to 600 gigatonnes of CO₂ storage capacity across depleted oil and gas fields, deep saline aquifers, basalt formations, and sedimentary basins.

To exploit this advantage, the roadmap proposes a cluster-based model. Instead of isolated projects, multiple industries within a region would capture CO₂ and feed it into shared transport and storage infrastructure. Such hubs reduce costs through economies of scale and mirror successful CCUS deployments in Europe and North America.

This approach also encourages regional industrial planning, aligning emissions management with spatial economic development.

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Priority Sectors for Deployment

The roadmap clearly identifies sectors where CCUS can deliver the highest climate impact. Cement manufacturing, steel and iron production, petrochemicals, fertilisers, and coal-based baseload power emerge as prime candidates.

These sectors account for a disproportionate share of emissions and face technological limits in transitioning to low-carbon alternatives. CCUS enables incremental decarbonisation without dismantling productive capacity. It complements, rather than competes with, renewable energy and electrification efforts.

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Projected Gains by Mid-Century

By 2050, India could potentially capture up to 750 million tonnes of CO₂ annually if CCUS is deployed at scale. The implications extend beyond emissions reduction.

Large-scale CCUS deployment can generate employment across engineering, geology, materials science, and manufacturing. It can enhance industrial competitiveness by aligning Indian products with emerging global carbon standards. It can reduce import dependence by strengthening domestic production of chemicals and materials.

Most importantly, it lays the foundation for a circular carbon economy, where waste emissions become productive inputs rather than environmental externalities.

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Policy and Institutional Foundations

The roadmap is clear that technology alone cannot drive this transition. CCUS requires a supportive policy ecosystem. Public-Private Partnerships are essential to share risks and mobilise capital. Innovative financing instruments, including green bonds, carbon-linked cess mechanisms, and targeted government support, will be necessary to overcome high initial costs.

Human capital development is equally vital. Engineers, geologists, regulators, and safety specialists must be trained to manage complex CCUS systems. A national CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure, supported by robust monitoring and regulatory standards, will determine public trust and long-term viability.

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The Larger Climate Philosophy

At its core, India’s CCUS roadmap reflects a mature understanding of climate realism. It recognises that moral urgency must be matched with economic feasibility. Rather than framing climate action as an abrupt rupture with the past, it treats it as a managed evolution.

CCUS does not absolve societies of the responsibility to reduce emissions at source. Instead, it acknowledges that transition pathways must be inclusive, gradual, and grounded in national circumstances. For India, it represents a third path, one that neither delays action nor sacrifices development.

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Conclusion

India’s CCUS roadmap is not about technological optimism alone. It is about governance foresight. By integrating climate ambition with industrial strategy, India signals that Net-Zero is not a destination reached by shortcuts, but a journey navigated through pragmatism.

Capturing carbon is not the end goal. It is a means of buying time, time to innovate, to transform energy systems, and to ensure that the pursuit of sustainability does not come at the cost of stability. In a world racing against climate thresholds, such realism may prove to be India’s greatest strength.

— IAS Monk

🪶 Philosophical Whisper

“Some transitions cannot be leaped across.
They must be crossed slowly,
with bridges built from science, patience, and responsibility.”