RESEARCH
Global Carbon Capture (CCS) Operational Capacity for 2025 Splits 50 to 120 Million Tonnes Across Trackers
Four independent trackers -- the IEA, the Global CCS Institute, Wood Mackenzie, and S&P Global Commodity Insights -- published 2025 figures for global operational carbon capture and storage (CCS) capacity that diverge by more than 2x: from just over 50 million tonnes per year (IEA, Q1 2025 database snapshot) to 120 Mtpa (Wood Mackenzie's year-end 2025 projection), with the Global CCS Institute (64 Mtpa, October 2025) and S&P Global (approximately 70 Mtpa 'secured') landing in between. All four agree 2025 marks a sharp acceleration from prior years, but the absolute figure depends heavily on whether a tracker counts only database-verified operating facilities at a point in time or forward-looking capacity expected to come online or be contractually secured by year-end. For climate policy analysts and industrial buyers of carbon removal credits, that gap is the difference between a nascent, still-small CCS sector and one already approaching the scale needed for near-term decarbonization targets.
Findings
- The IEA's Q1 2025 CCUS Projects Database snapshot puts operational capacity at just over 50 Mtpa, up from 47.4 Mtpa in Q1 2024 -- a database-verified, point-in-time count.
- The Global CCS Institute's Global Status of CCS 2025 report (October 2025) counts 64 Mtpa operating across 77 facilities, a 54% year-over-year rise in project count, with combined operating-plus-in-development capacity reaching 513 Mtpa.
- Wood Mackenzie's January 2025 forecast projected operational capacity rising from 94 Mtpa (2024) to 120 Mtpa by end of 2025 -- the largest annual increase Wood Mackenzie has recorded -- but this is a forward projection, not a verified count.
- S&P Global Commodity Insights' January 2025 outlook put roughly 70 million tonnes per year as capacity the CCUS sector was expected to secure in 2025, a figure that blends secured-but-not-yet-operating projects with active ones, explaining part of the spread from the IEA's stricter operational count.
Delta Engine result
↔ Divergence Detected — Δ 0.7143 (threshold 0.05)
Evidence quality
avg 50 · min 25 · max 95 · spread 70