Abstract Motivated by recent evidence of a carbon risk premium Bolton and Kacperczyk (2021, J. Financ. Econ., 142, 517549), we analyze firm-level patenting in Carbon Capture Utilization & Storage (CCUS) technologies and its impact on stock market performance from 2010 to 2022. Using zero-inflated Poisson regressions on patent and financial data and CO2 emissions, we find CCUS patents respond to CO2 emissions and climate policies. Moreover, although CCUS patents are negatively (positively) re