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Earth’s capacity to store carbon could max out surprisingly soon

Around 1,460 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide can be safely stored underground, but this limit could be reached by 2200.
By
  1. Mohana Basu
Steam rising from multiple large cooling towers of a coal-fired power plant in Boxberg, Germany.

Storing carbon dioxide from polluting industries such as coal-fired power generators is one strategy to reduce global emissions. Credit: Florian Gaertner/Photothek via Getty

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The planet’s capacity to store carbon-dioxide emissions in rock formations is much smaller than previous estimates suggest, and it could run out as early as 2200, according to a study1 published in Nature today.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-02790-6

References

  1. Gidden, M. J. et al. Nature 645, 124–132 (2025).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Kearns, J. et al. Energy Procedia 114, 4697–4709 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

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