Global underground CO₂ storage hit record 43.6 million metric tons in 2024 alone

Global underground CO₂ storage hit record 43.6 million metric tons in 2024 alone Gaby Clark Scientific Editor Robert Egan Senior Editor The most comprehensive record yet of carbon dioxide stored underground through geological carbon dioxide storage has been published today, revealing that 43.6 million metric tons were sequestered in 2024 alone—a new annual record—and that 421.7 million metric tons have now been stored in the past three decades. The 2026 Annual Report from The London Register of Subsurface CO₂ Storage, led by researchers from Imperial College London, tracks the annual rates of CO₂ stored by operational projects worldwide. This year's edition expands the Register to 70 projects across 17 countries on six continents. "Our latest report shows that geological CO₂ storage has become a global enterprise, with annual reported storage more than doubling between 2016 and 2024, and the Register itself now covering 70 individual projects around the world," said professor Samuel Krevor, director of the Register from the Department of Earth Science and Engineering (ESE) at Imperial. "The consistency of these operations, and the fact that new countries and projects continue to join the Register, shows that geological storage is demonstrated as a large-scale mitigation technology." The consortium behind the Register brings together more than 30 international experts from academia, industry and government, including the Department of Energy Science & Engineering at Stanford, MIT Civil and Environmental Engineering, the Global CCS Institute, the Carbon Capture & Storage Association, IEAGHG and CSIRO. Record year driven by Brazil and the U.S. Geological CO₂ storage is a process where CO₂ captured from industrial sources and power production, or directly from the atmosphere, is injected into rocks deep underground, allowing this greenhouse gas to be safely stored for potentially thousands of years. The London Register of Subsurface CO₂ Storage is focused on tracking geological storage. "Where the sources of CO₂ today are dominated by industrial capture, removals from the atmosphere are projected to emerge as the leading technology using geological storage by mid-century," said Krevor. Building on the Register's findings last year, the 2026 report finds that reported annual storage rose from 21.0 million metric tons in 2016 to a record 43.6 million metric tons in 2024 (2024 stands as the most recent complete reporting year). Projects in the U.S. remain the largest contributors by number, with 23 projects reporting a combined 20.2 million metric tons, while Brazil's Petrobras Santos Basin Pre-Salt Oil Field remained the single largest project, reporting 14.2 million metric tons (approximately one-third of the global total). China's reported storage increased to 1.7 million metric tons in 2024, driven primarily by the Shengli Oilfield and the newly included Daqing Aonan Oilfield, while Australia reported 1.7 million metric tons with the addition of the Moomba project. New Zealand and Italy both entered the Register for the first time, and in Europe the Northern Lights project in Norway began injection in August 2025. Revised figures This year's report includes significant revisions to previously published figures, following a new interpretation of data from the North Burbank Unit to account for recycled CO₂, a correction of double counting between company-level and project-level reporting, and revised national inventory figures for Sleipner (the world's first commercial CCS project). Cumulative geological CO₂ storage through 2023 has therefore been revised from 351.4 to 342.0 million metric tons—a decrease of 2.7%—while the 2023 annual figure has been revised from 45.2 to 41.7 million metric tons. "These revisions reflect the latest evidence, and we have been explicit in the report about where the accounting for reported storage remains uncertain," said Dr. Xiaowei Gao, executive director of the Register from Imperial's Department of Earth Science and Engineering. "That transparency matters if geological CO₂ storage is to earn the confidence of policymakers and investors." Incomplete data already show 36.2 million metric tons At the time of publication, 29 projects across 12 countries had reported 2025 storage data, with an aggregate of 36.2 million metric tons—a figure the authors caution is incomplete and should not be interpreted as a full-year global total. Brazil's Petrobras Santos Basin project has already reported 19.6 million metric tons for 2025, an increase from 14.2 million metric tons in 2024, while operations in China have reported 2.6 million metric tons across seven projects and the United States 8.9 million metric tons across six projects. Meanwhile, several large U.S. projects with 2024 data, including the Denver Unit/Wasson San Andres Field, Hobbs Field, Seminole San Andres Unit and Shute Creek, do not yet have corresponding 2025 records in the Register. Accounting for uncertainties While U.S. projects use rigorous accounting when reporting under the Environmental Protection Agency's regulation governing CO₂ injected for underground sequestration, the report highlights that the basis for accounting is less clear for many other projects. A large share of the reported storage—82.3% of the cumulative total—is also categorized as Geological Storage with Oil Recovery, much of which aims to extend the operating life of an existing oil field. However, around a third of the stored CO₂ reported under this category—112.5 million metric tons—is simply recorded as 'injected," potentially without adjustments for the CO₂ that is later brought back to the surface and reinjected underground. "In this Register we endeavor to compile values of storage net of any losses and accounting for recycled and reinjected CO₂," the authors write. "There are, however, uncertainties in the meaning of the reported values for those projects with ambiguous or unstated bases." An analysis of these uncertainties will be incorporated into upcoming reports. Krevor said, "To meet the 1.5°C target pledged by the Paris Agreement, all projections indicate that geological CO₂ storage must scale up to 1 billion metric tons of CO₂ storage or more per year by 2050." "The more precisely we can trace every metric ton of CO₂ from injection to permanent storage, the stronger the evidence base we can provide as the technology grows to the scale that climate targets demand." More information The London Register of Subsurface CO₂ Storage Annual Report 2026, imperialcollegelondon.github.i … surface-CO2-Storage/ Key concepts carbon dioxide storage assessmentProvided by Imperial College London