Carbon-based energy vectors can use existing energy infrastructures and can serve all energy applications including transport. The review analyses how carbon-based energy vectors can be made suitable for design of low CO 2 intensive and cost-effective energy systems. For this purpose several interesting carbon management technologies which well integrate and add value to energy technologies are expounded. It is shown that energy systems involving carbon-based vectors can achieve very low CO 2 intensity when they use energy mix of carbon positive and carbon negative technologies. The focus of the study is on promising carbon management technologies which can achieve: (i) minimised atmospheric CO 2 emissions by sources and/or (ii) maximised CO 2 removals from the atmosphere by sinks. Further, the opportunities for integration of value-added carbon management technologies into fossil fuel, biomass and renewable energy technologies are discussed. In summary, perspectives and constraints of energy technologies integrated with value-added carbon management are expounded.