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The direct hydrogenation of CO₂ to methanol using hydrogen is regarded as a potential technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the dependence on fossil fuels. For this technology to become feasible, highly selective and productive catalysts that can operate under a wide range of reaction conditions near thermodynamic conversion are required. Here we combine a CO-producing In oxide catalyst with a methane-producing Co catalyst to obtain an In/Co catalyst for CO₂ reduction to methanol. Density functional (DFT) simulations demonstrate that the charge transfer between the Co support and the In oxide film leads to enrichment of the surface of indium oxide with O vacancies, which serve as active sites for selective conversion of CO₂ to methanol. Moreover, our simulations suggest that CO₂ reduction on Co-supported In₂O_3–x films will preferentially yield methanol, rather than CO and methane. As a …