A PIB backgrounder presents carbon capture, utilisation and storage as a complement to renewables for steel, cement, refinery, chemical and power emissions that clean energy alone cannot remove.

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• Union Budget 2026-27 earmarks ₹20,000 crore over five years for carbon capture, utilisation and storage in power, steel, cement, refineries and chemicals.
• CCUS captures carbon dioxide at the source, compresses it, moves it by pipeline or ship, and then either uses it or stores it.
• The government positions the technology as a complement to renewables on India's path to net zero emissions by 2070.
• Emissions from these industries and thermal power could approach about 2,300 million tonnes a year by 2030, according to the backgrounder.
• Fossil sources still accounted for roughly 45 per cent of India's installed power capacity in August 2026.
• NITI Aayog issued a CCUS policy framework in November 2022, and national CCUS centres were set up at IIT Bombay and JNCASR, Bengaluru.
• The Department of Science and Technology published a CCUS research and development roadmap in December 2025.
• As of April 2026, three carbon capture and utilisation projects were operational, six were under execution and 16 more were proposed.
• Captured carbon can be stored in depleted oil and gas reservoirs, deep saline aquifers or basalt rock, with the Deccan basalts seen as a potential site.
• Utilisation routes include enhanced oil recovery, urea, green methanol and construction materials, though some uses release the carbon again.
• Critics point to high costs, a large energy penalty at plants and the risk that CCUS could prolong fossil fuel use.
• The Carbon Credit Trading Scheme may help projects become viable by putting a price on emissions.