Delhi puts CCUS at centre of India's 2070 net zero pathway

India has formally positioned Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) as a key pathway to its Net Zero by 2070 target, according to an official government statement issued on Tuesday in New Delhi. The statement frames CCUS not only as an emissions tool but as a lever for industrial competitiveness and resource efficiency across the country's hard-to-abate sectors.

The announcement coincides with ESTIC-2026, the second edition of India's Emerging Science, Technology and Innovation Conclave, running October 27–29 at Bharat Mandapam in the capital. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) organises the event under the theme "Creative Minds, Catalyzing Science, Empowering Technologies."

What did the government actually commit to?

The statement describes an ecosystem under construction rather than a single new plant or budget line. The government says it is fostering collaboration among three groups:

• research institutions
• public sector enterprises
• private industry

This ecosystem, according to the statement, already spans operational projects, projects under execution and proposed initiatives across multiple states. The statement names no individual facilities, tonnages or investment figures. It does, however, claim these efforts are building indigenous CCUS capability across three linked functions: carbon capture, carbon utilisation and secure carbon storage.

The distinction matters for anyone tracking Indian carbon infrastructure. Operational capacity exists. Additional capacity is under execution. A further pipeline is proposed. Each category carries a different level of certainty, and the government has not yet published a consolidated inventory separating built from announced.

Why CCUS and not just renewables?

The government's reasoning rests on the limits of electrification. Renewable energy can cut emissions substantially, the statement acknowledges, but some industrial processes resist it. Two categories stand out: processes requiring very high temperatures, and processes that use carbon-based inputs as raw material rather than fuel.

CCUS intervenes before release. The technology captures carbon dioxide from industrial sources at the point of emission. The captured stream then follows one of two routes: productive utilisation in industrial applications, or secure storage underground.

That structure — capture, then either use or store — allows CCUS to complement renewables rather than compete with them, the statement argues. Together, the two approaches are meant to carry India toward a lower-carbon industrial economy.

Which sectors does NITI Aayog single out?

NITI Aayog, the government's principal policy think tank, identifies CCUS as critical for decarbonising six hard-to-abate sectors:

• steel
• cement
• oil and gas
• petrochemicals
• chemicals
• fertilisers

These industries contribute significantly to India's industrial emissions, according to the statement, and face technological barriers to deep decarbonisation that renewable power alone cannot resolve.

The policy case has two halves. First, CCUS can cut emissions from existing facilities while those facilities continue producing essential goods — steel, cement and fertiliser among them. Second, building the capture, utilisation and storage chain creates domestic capability in new technologies, infrastructure and industrial services.

What happens at the conclave?

ESTIC-2026 covers 12 thematic areas in total, with CCUS sitting inside the energy technologies track. The programme includes plenary sessions, technical discussions and exhibitions. CSIR, the organising body, operates one of the largest state research networks in the country.

For CCUS specifically, the conclave functions as a staging ground. It links the policy statement released this week with the research and industry actors who would have to deliver projects on the ground.

What decides what comes next?

The 2070 net zero deadline anchors every commitment in the statement, but nearer milestones will reveal whether the announced ecosystem produces steel in the ground. Watch three things: publication of a project inventory that separates operational from proposed capacity; the emergence of state-level permitting frameworks for carbon storage; and any financing instrument that converts the "proposed initiatives" named in the statement into sanctioned projects.

Until then, India's CCUS programme remains a policy architecture with confirmed ambition and unconfirmed scale.