The pledge of achieving carbon peak before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060 is a strategic decision that responds to the inherent needs of China’s sustainable and high-quality development, and is an important driving force for promoting China’s ecological civilization constructions. As the consumption of fossil fuel energy is responsible for more than 90% of China’s greenhouse gases emissions, policies focusing on energy transition are vital for China accomplishing the goal of carbon neutrality. Considering the fact that China’s energy structure is dominated by fossil fuels, especially coal, it is urgent to accelerate the low-carbon transition of the energy system in a relatively short time, and dramatically increase the proportion of clean energy in the future energy supply. Although China has made notable progress in the clean energy transition in the past, its path to carbon neutrality still faces many significant challenges. During the process of energy transformation, advanced technologies and greater investment will play essential parts in this extensive and profound systemic reform for China’s economy and society. In the meantime, these changes will create immense economic opportunities and geopolitical advantages.

CO₂, used as an environmentally friendly fracturing fluid, has encountered a bottleneck in development in recent years. Despite great efforts in research work, limited progress has been made in field applications. In this study, an extensive literature review of research work and field cases was performed to summarize the technical issues and challenges of CO₂fracturing. The key issues of CO₂fracturing were analyzed to reveal the gap between fundamental research and field operations. The effects of CO₂properties on fracture creation and proppant transport were synthetically analyzed to extract new common research orientations, with the aim of improving the efficiency of CO₂injection. The hydraulic parameters of CO₂fracturing were compared with those of water-based fracturing fluids, which revealed a theory-practice gap. By studying the developing trends and successful experiences of conventional fluids, new strategies for CO₂fracturing were proposed. We identified that the major theory-practice gap in CO₂fracturing exists in pump rate and operation scale. Consequently, the friction reducer, effects of flow loss (due to leak-off) and distribution (within fracture networks), and shear viscosity of thickened CO₂are key factors in improving both fracture propagation and proppant transport. By increasing the scale of injected CO₂, the CO₂fracturing technique can be enhanced, making it an essential option for carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate climate change.