Establishing leadership in bringing carbon capture, utilisation and storage to scale

Carbon capture, utilisation and storage, often referred to simply as CCUS, refers to a suite of technologies to decarbonise many hard-to-abate industries. However, commercial-scale adoption of CCUS technologies faces critical barriers related to application scope, societal acceptance, and financing. Here we propose how fossil energy-exporting countries are uniquely situated to expedite CCUS deployment at scale. Using a sociotechnical systems perspective, we show how one such country, the United Arab Emirates, serves as an important case study for addressing eight different sociotechnical barriers to CCUS adoption. We evaluate the elements that are addressed by factors related to local context and those which represent opportunities for application in other geographies. We argue that scaling-up CCUS is both a duty and opportunity for countries like the UAE as they decarbonise their industries and economies.