Carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS)

Image credit: Energy Innovation Centre, University of Sheffield.

Business growth in the global CCUS market

The UK CCUS sector is a prime opportunity for investors, with £9.4 billion allocated in capital budgets over this Spending Review period, targeting rapid growth in carbon capture, transport, and storage projects.

Strategic industrial clusters like HyNet, East Coast, Acorn, Viking, and Peak Clusters are unlocking markets across plant equipment, CO₂ transport solutions, engineering, packaged carbon capture and storage (CCS), and negative emissions.

The UK’s world-leading 78 gigatonnes of CO₂ storage capacity and mature supply chain, combined with a pipeline of over 90 projects and robust research and development (R&D) backing offer business growth, technology deployment, and export leadership in the global CCUS market.

CCUS can be used in a variety of ways. Industrial CCUS is used for the deep decarbonisation of industries like cement and chemicals, which have no alternative to decarbonise. Through CCUS, flexible, low-carbon power can also be produced, which will displace the use of unabated gas when renewable energy sources like solar and wind are not available.

The UK government has developed a series of bespoke business models to incentivise the deployment of CCUS in a range of sectors. The business models are designed to address the risks that currently present a barrier to CCUS projects, incentivise project behaviour in line with government objectives and deliver value for money for consumers and taxpayers.

These business models are among the first globally to successfully attract project finance, meaning structured, bank-led financing where lenders rely on the project’s future cash flows rather than the sponsor’s balance sheet. These models offer long-term contracts and public revenue support, making them bankable and familiar to infrastructure investors.

Explore how the government supports the development and deployment of carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) in the UK and internationally.

Greenhouse Gas Removal (GGR)

GGR technologies will be important for reaching net zero – balancing residual emissions from hard-to-decarbonise sectors while providing new economic opportunities.

The UK is well-positioned to be a global leader in GGR technologies with our world-class research institutions, engineering expertise and access to geological storage.

In August 2025, the government published details of the Greenhouse Gas Removal (GGR) Business Model. This is a central pillar of the strategy to kickstart the engineered GGRs industry in the UK, boosting the Accelerating to Net Zero, as well as creating new jobs and investment opportunities to drive the government’s growth mission.

The UK Government supports action to unlock high-integrity voluntary carbon markets which mobilise genuine additional finance to help reduce emissions sooner in the race to meet the 1.5 degrees pathway goal.

UK supply chain

CCUS is a priority area in the UK's Modern Industrial Strategy 2025, reflected in the Clean Energy Industries Sector Plan. The UK has supply chain investment opportunities in areas including high-value technical design, industrial heat exchangers, solvent treatment vessels and CO₂ stripper columns.