India Unveils R&D Roadmap to Accelerate Carbon Capture Technologies for Net-Zero 2070

India has unveiled a pioneering Research & Development (R&D) roadmap aimed at accelerating the deployment of Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) technologies to meet its 2070 net-zero target. The roadmap, launched by Principal Scientific Adviser Ajay Kumar Sood, is designed to guide coordinated national action, stimulate innovation, and direct investments toward solutions that will reduce emissions from hard-to-abate industries such as steel, cement, and power generation. Backed by the government’s ₹1 lakh crore Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) funding ecosystem, the roadmap marks India’s most comprehensive push to mainstream CCUS technologies. The roadmap outlines two major components of CCUS—storage and utilisation. The storage segment focuses on processes that separate CO₂ from industrial or energy operations before compressing, transporting, and injecting it into deep geological formations such as depleted oil reservoirs. Utilisation, by comparison, promotes the direct use of captured CO₂ as a feedstock to manufacture industrial and consumer products, bypassing the need for permanent underground storage. These pathways are considered critical for decarbonizing sectors that currently lack scalable, low-carbon alternatives. However, the announcement comes amid growing global debate about the technological, environmental and economic risks of CCUS. Several experts and studies argue that heavy reliance on carbon capture may increase greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, undermine the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C threshold, and lock countries into high-cost fossil fuel systems. Despite these concerns, major economies—including India, China, the US, and EU member states—continue to view CCUS as a strategic pillar for deep decarbonisation, especially in industries where electrification or green hydrogen shifts are still years from being viable at scale. Earlier this year, India launched five Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) testbeds in the cement sector, forming a first-of-its-kind national research and innovation hub for industrial decarbonisation. These testbeds are built within real industrial settings through public–private partnerships and aim to advance technology development, build skilled workforce capacity, shape regulatory and safety frameworks, and create shared early-stage infrastructure. Together with the new R&D roadmap, these efforts solidify India’s long-term strategy to scale CCUS and address emissions from hard-to-abate sectors that are central to its net-zero trajectory.