A Review on the Economic Perspectives and Policy Frameworks of Carbon Capture and Utilization in China

The accelerating progression of industrial technologies has precipitated a surge in anthropogenic carbon emissions, catalyzing environmental perturbations ranging from greenhouse effect amplification to systemic global climate destabilization. This cascading ecological impact has elevated carbon emission regulation to a paramount priority in transnational environmental governance. Carbon capture and utilization (CCU), positioned as a pivotal climate mitigation mechanism, has emerged as a focal domain in global decarbonization strategies, demonstrating growing alignment with carbon neutrality imperatives. In pursuit of dual carbon objectives and energy transition, China has strategically deployed two batches of demonstration initiatives incorporating cutting–edge green technological paradigms. This review focuses on China’s CCU landscape through economic viability and policy architecture. We first outline China’s CCU developmental trajectory and provide a brief description of present CCU techniques. An in–depth analysis of China’s CCU economic barrier has been conducted, revealing critical bottlenecks in high capture cost and revenue uncertainty, which ultimately result in project profitability being highly dependent on incentive policies. Meanwhile, China’s current carbon pricing remains significantly lower. Not only does it fail to provide effective incentives for energy structure transformation, but it may also severely undermine the international competitiveness of high–carbon export enterprises. Moreover, the challenges posed by methodological choices in environmental assessments of CCU technology have been reviewed. Finally, we present three key policy recommendations for the successful development of CCU technologies in the Chinese context.