India is set to roll out a national carbon capture initiative to align rising energy demand with climate targets while continuing to rely on coal, a senior NITI Aayog official said.

The program will promote carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technologies, offering funding support covering 50 percent to 100 percent of select projects, Rajnath Ram, Energy advisor at NITI Aayog, said at a coal summit organized by the Indian Chamber of Commerce. CCUS technology captures CO2 either directly from industrial emissions or from the atmosphere and stores it underground.

Rajnath Ram emphasised that these incentives aim to encourage industries to adopt carbon capture solutions and integrate them with coal-based energy systems. He highlighted that India’s electricity consumption is rising and coal will remain a significant part of the energy mix for the next two decades. The initiative reflects India’s pragmatic approach to using coal sustainably while advancing low-carbon technologies.