The number of operational carbon capture facilities climbed by nearly 22 percent over the past year, with projects coming online in the United States, China and Iceland, according to a new report from the Global CCS Institute.
The think tank, which supports the technology, said 50 commercial-scale carbon capture and storage projects are up and running globally, up from 41 in last year’s analysis. Beyond facilities that are already online, 44 projects are under construction and 534 are either in early or advanced development.
Altogether, currently operating projects can trap 51 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year — a figure that could double once facilities that are under construction start operations. Yet, the amount is still far below levels of deployment to meet international climate targets, the institute said.
While project growth and “transnational collaboration is very encouraging, we still have a long way to go to attain the gigatonnes per annum of carbon management deployment, both point source and [carbon dioxide removal], required to help reach net-zero and avoid the most severe consequences of global temperature rise,” Jarad Daniels, the institute’s CEO, said in the report.
