Carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) technologies prevent or remove carbon emissions from the atmosphere, and then the captured carbon is reused in manufacturing or stored underground. CCUS technology has yet to be widely adopted, but many see CCUS, alongside planting trees, as key to implementing carbon offset and cap-and-trade systems. The most common form of CCUS traps emissions at the source like a factory before the carbon can enter the atmosphere. Direct air capture, a more cutting-edge form of CCUS, removes carbon directly from the atmosphere by means of large-scale air filtering.
[Last updated in June of 2021 by the Wex Definitions Team]