Due to their high investment costs, CO2 capture technologies are appropriate above all for large, concentrated emission sources; they appear unsuitable for diffuse emission sources.

Worldwide, fossil-fueled power generation alone accounts for just over 42% of overall anthropogenic CO2 emissions (and about 80% of CO2 emissions from the industrial sector). Conventional power plants (particularly coal-fired units) and, to a lesser degree, certain other industrial facilities such as cement mills, refineries, fertilizer factories, steel mills and petrochemical plants are currently viewed as the installations where CO2 capture appears to be the most applicable.

                             Annual carbon dioxide emissions from major industrial sources