Beijing Hosts Inauguration of ICTO, Uniting 50 Global Leaders to Advance CCUS Innovation

New International CCUS Alliance Formed Under Sinopec’s Leadership to Accelerate Climate Action

BEIJING, July 14, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — On July 11, the Members Assembly and the Inauguration for International CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage) Technology Innovation & Cooperation Organization (“ICTO”) was successfully hosted in Beijing, led by China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (HKG: 0386, “Sinopec”) under the guidance of China Association for Science and Technology (CAST).

Beijing Hosts Inauguration of ICTO, Uniting 50 Global Leaders to Advance CCUS Innovation.

Gathering the strength of the world’s leading think tanks, ICTO brings together 50 influential enterprises, industry associations, research institutions, and expert academicians to establish a global platform of sharing and exchanges to drive the technological innovation and application of CCUS, jointly building a community with a shared future for humanity in addressing climate change. With the core mission of Innovating For Carbon Pathway, Sharing The Future, the organization aims to establish a credible, influential and authoritative global collaborative network.

More than 90 representatives from 12 countries across the four continents attended the inauguration. The conference reviewed and approved the Charter of the International Technology Innovation Cooperation Organization for Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage and elected the first assembly, including director, deputy director and general secretary. Ma Yongsheng, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and chairman of Sinopec, was elected the director of the first assembly.

“The establishment of ICTO not only demonstrates the global community’s firm commitment to tackle climate change, but also is a collective declaration of tangible action,” said Ma Yongsheng. “We will actively listen to all parties and foster in-depth dialogue and substantial cooperation to pave the way for mutual success, making CCUS a true accelerator for global carbon neutrality.”

Addressing climate change and achieving net-zero collectively is now a global consensus, with 151 countries having proposed climate targets such as carbon neutrality or net-zero carbon. CCUS boasts significant potential to realize large-scale emissions reduction, and it’s contributing to about 15 percent of cumulative emissions reduction needed to meet the carbon neutrality goals, and to achieve that, CCUS project capacity needs to increase by over 100 times before 2050.

Sinopec’s been spearheading China’s CCUS industry, from launching China’s first project at Shengli Oilfield in 2012 to pioneering CO₂ resource integration across its operations in 2015. It further solidified this leadership by putting China’s first megaton-scale CCUS project into commercial operation in 2022 and completing the nation’s first long-distance CO₂ transmission pipeline in 2023.