Earth Notes: General Bibliography (allwood2026CCS)

• [allwood2026CCS] Allwood, Julian M. Too late for CCS and hydrogen (accessed 2026-02-25), Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2026-01-27, Nature Chemical Engineering, volume 3, report/number 1, ISSN 2948-1198, doi:10.1038/s44286-025-00344-1, article/pages 26–33, PDF (article) (BibTeX).
  abstract

  Fifty years after carbon capture and storage (CCS) was commercialized, global capacity has reached just 0.09% of global emissions; even if installation rates immediately expand 10-fold, this will make no quantitatively important contribution to climate mitigation by 2050. Deployment of emission-free electricity generation is also constrained, so there will be no quantitatively important supply of hydrogen or negative-emission technologies by 2050 either, and climate policy must turn to other more achievable options. The bulk materials must be produced without process emissions, powered solely by emission-free electricity, within a constrained global electricity budget. Primary production of steel and paper can be fully electrified, although the electrical intensity of green hydrogen will constrain new steel processes. However, steel, aluminum, glass, plastic and potentially cement can all be recycled without emissions and with high efficiency. This reality should direct research toward improving the quality of recycled production, making better use of less material, and should be central to any advice given by academics to the policy community.