The concept of reducing emissions of CO2 to the atmosphere by producing chemicals has been suggested by many people as a potential greenhouse gas mitigation option. The goal of such schemes is either: (i) fixation of CO2 in a chemical compound for a significant time, or, (ii) reduction of emissions by replacing an existing process with an alternative releasing less CO2. This paper describes a simple assessment procedure which can be used as a preliminary screen to test the validity of schemes for chemicals utilisation of CO2. The procedure is presented as a template (or worksheet); two summaries of its use are presented. The template gives research workers a decision methodology which leads to the proposed scheme either being rejected or accepted as being of sufficient potential to merit more detailed investigation.