| Summary: | This work concerns recent advances (mainly in the last five years) in the challenging conversion of carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2</sub>) into fine chemicals, in particular to cyclic carbonates, as a meaningful measure to reduce CO<sub>2</sub> emissions in the atmosphere and subsequent global warming effects. Thus, efficient catalysts and catalytic processes developed to convert CO<sub>2</sub> into different chemicals towards a more sustainable chemical industry are addressed. Cyclic carbonates can be produced by different routes that directly, or indirectly, use carbon dioxide. Thus, recent findings on CO<sub>2</sub> cycloaddition to epoxides as well as on its reaction with diols are reviewed. In addition, indirect sources of carbon dioxide, such as urea, considered a sustainable process with high atom economy, are also discussed. Reaction mechanisms for the transformations involved are also presented.
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