26/05/2026
China is the world's largest emitter of CO₂ — and it is building carbon capture and storage infrastructure at a scale that reflects that reality.
China's industrial base — steel, cement, chemicals, power generation — produces emissions on a scale no other country approaches. Decarbonizing that industrial base requires every available technology, and China's national carbon neutrality by 2060 commitment has triggered investment in CCS that is beginning to match the ambition of the target.
The Guohua Jinjie coal power CCS project in Shaanxi Province — one of the largest coal power carbon capture demonstrations in the world — has been operating since 2021, capturing 150,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year from a 300 MW coal-fired unit and injecting it into saline aquifer formations beneath the Ordos Basin. The Ordos Basin — a vast sedimentary formation in northern China — has been assessed as having enormous potential for CO₂ geological storage and is the focus of China's most significant CCS geological research programs.
China's national CCS roadmap, published by the Ministry of Science and Technology in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, targets 10 million tonnes of CO₂ capture per year by 2025 and 200 million tonnes by 2040. State-owned enterprises including Sinopec, CNPC, and China Energy Investment are each developing flagship industrial CCS projects tied to their core operations.
China emits more carbon than anyone. It is now building the tools to capture more carbon than anyone too.
Source: Chinese Academy of Sciences CCS Research Centre / MOST, 2023
