Burning fossil fuels emits a significant amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which impacts the environment. This means the global economy has been working on switching to lower-carbon energy sources. While carbon dioxide is a big problem for the oil and gas industry, many energy companies are starting to see an opportunity.

Oil giant ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) estimates that capturing carbon dioxide and storing it underground (i.e., carbon capture and storage, or CCS) could become a $4 trillion market by 2050. Meanwhile, Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY) sees CCS growing to a $3 trillion to $5 trillion global industry in the coming years. That's leading these and other oil companies to invest heavily to capture some of this potentially massive market opportunity. 

ExxonMobil is a global leader in CCS. The oil giant has already captured more carbon dioxide than any other company, at 120 million metric tons. That's 40% of the total, and equivalent to eliminating the emissions of more than 25 million cars for one year. 

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Source Fool.com