Abstract China has been building at least 50 gigawatt (GW) of new coal-fired power plants every year since 2004. In the absence of CO 2 capture ready (CCR) designs, a large fraction of new coal power plants built in the next decade could face ‘carbon lock-in’. Building on the existing engineering and economic literature on CO 2 capture ready, the aim of this study is to understand the opportunities and challenges in implementing CCR in China. In early 2010, opinion-leaders perceptions towards implementing CCR in Guangdong with two empirical phases are presented: an online consultation of 31 respondents (out of a sample of 82), three face-to-face focus group discussions including 16 officials from five power plants and two oil companies in the Guangdong province. A majority of respondents in the online survey were engineers. The survey results are compared with an earlier study of stakeholders’ views on demonstrating CCS in China, conducted in April 2009 as part of the EU–UK–China Near Zero Emissions Coal initiative (NZEC) project.