- Why in news
- On 27 October 2026, PIB issued a backgrounder on CCUS as India's pathway to cut emissions in hard-to-abate sectors. It came as CSIR's ESTIC-2026 conclave began in New Delhi, with CCUS among its themes.
- What it is
- CCUS means capturing carbon dioxide from industrial sources, then using it or storing it underground. It is meant for sectors where emissions are hard to remove by electrification, such as steel, cement, refineries, chemicals and fertilisers. India is building a hub-and-cluster model, research centres and pilot test beds.
- Storage formations
- Permanent storage is in depleted oil and gas reservoirs, deep saline aquifers and basaltic rock.
- Budget 2026-27 scheme
- ₹20,000 crore over five years, announced in February 2026, for CCUS in power, steel, cement, refineries and chemicals.
- Cluster regions
- The DST CCUS Roadmap 2025 names the Gujarat coast, the Odisha–Jharkhand belt and Northeast India as potential cluster regions.
- Blue vs green hydrogen
- Green hydrogen is made by electrolysis of water using renewable power. Blue hydrogen uses natural gas or coal as feedstock.
Don’t confuse with CCU vs CCUS: CCU only captures and uses CO2. CCUS adds permanent geological storage.
Don’t confuse with Green vs blue hydrogen: Green hydrogen comes from water electrolysis with renewable power. Blue hydrogen comes from fossil fuels, with carbon capture.
Science and technology: 57 Prelims questions since 2013; most test the concept behind the news, not the news itself. In Mains, 12 news-triggered questions.
Why it matters
- Addresses emissions from steel, cement and chemicals that electrification cannot easily remove, supporting Net Zero 2070.
- Lets existing thermal plants and industries keep running with lower emissions and supports blue hydrogen.
Problems
- Pilot scale is still small: the IIT Bombay lab handles 3 tonnes of CO2 a day, against the sector emissions the release projects at about 2,300 million tonnes a year by 2030.
- Needs shared transport and storage infrastructure and proven storage sites, with high costs and investment risk.
Way forward
- Develop hubs and clusters with shared pipelines and storage, as NITI Aayog suggests.
- Scale pilots to commercial projects through the ₹20,000 crore scheme and public-private partnerships.
Put in your answer
NITI Aayog CCUS report: Released November 2022, it covers CCUS policy and deployment for hard-to-abate sectors and backs the hub and cluster approach.
Cement CCU test bed cluster: A first cluster of five CCU testbeds for cement, led by DST under a PPP model, was launched on 11 May 2025.
Fossil share of capacity: Fossil fuels were 45.12% of installed power capacity in August 2026, so emissions from existing assets matter.
- 2025Mains GS3 · Q7Define CCUS and explain its potential role in tackling climate change.
- 2026Prelims Q45Which statements on green hydrogen, including gas reforming with CCS, are correct?
- 2025Prelims Q36Which statements on Direct Air Capture as carbon sequestration are correct?
- 2025Prelims Q31Cement CO2 emissions, clinker and limestone statements: which explain which?
UPSC’s own questions that come close to this issue, from our Prelims and Mains banks.
No practice question for this one; the card may still help an answer. Why: Lasting syllabus topic on emissions and Net Zero. Science-tech Prelims questions are mostly about concepts, but this release gives few testable facts.
Worth revising until Prelims 2028: most news questions come within two years of the event.