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A prudent planetary limit for geologic carbon storage

Innovation including research

Published: 03 September 2025

  • Date (DD-MM-YYYY)

    07-09-2025 to 07-09-2026

    Available on-demand until 7th September 2026

  • Cost

    Free

  • Education type

    Article

  • CPD subtype

    On-demand

Description

Geologically storing carbon is a key strategy for abating emissions from fossil fuels and durably removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere1,2. However, the storage potential is not unlimited3,4. Here we establish a prudent planetary limit of around 1,460 (1,290–2,710) Gt of CO2 storage through a risk-based, spatially explicit analysis of carbon storage in sedimentary basins. We show that only stringent near-term gross emissions reductions can lower the risk of breaching this limit before the year 2200. Fully using geologic storage for carbon removal caps the possible global temperature reduction to 0.7 °C (0.35–1.2 °C, including storage estimate and climate response uncertainty). The countries most robust to our risk assessment are current large-scale extractors of fossil resources. Treating carbon storage as a limited intergenerational resource has deep implications for national mitigation strategies and policy and requires making explicit decisions on priorities for storage use.

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