Jakarta – High hopes for carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology as the leading solution to the climate crisis are now beginning to be questioned. A recent study published on September 3, 2025, in the journal Nature reveals that the ability of CCS to slow global warming is far more limited than previously thought.
Research led by Matthew Gidden, a senior researcher at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Austria and an academic at the University of Maryland in the US, states that geological carbon storage underground can only reduce global temperatures by around 0.7°C.
Actual capacity is well below expectations
According to Mongabay, various studies have estimated that the Earth’s underground cavities can hold 8,000–55,000 gigatons of CO₂, seemingly offering an almost unlimited solution for achieving net-zero emissions. However, a recent study by Gidden and his team challenges this claim.
“We know that geologically storing carbon is likely to be a very important tool in the toolbox in order to achieve net-zero and net-negative CO2 emissions,” Gidden explained to Mongabay.
In the study, the authors mapped potential carbon storage locations around the world and found a total of 11,800 gigatons of CO₂ in geological spaces that could potentially be used. After considering high-risk areas such as earthquake zones, groundwater sources, and areas within a 25-kilometre radius of settlements, the actual capacity dropped dramatically to only about 1,460 gigatons of CO₂.
The new calculations project that global carbon storage will only be able to reduce global temperatures by around 0.7°C — far below previous estimates of 5–6°C.
Gidden continued that other methods still absorb more carbon, for example, through forests and other terrestrial ecosystems, which he believes are still greater than any other existing method. (Hartatik)
Banner photo: Image generated by OpenAI’s DALL·E via ChatGPT (2024)
