The article discusses the challenges of decarbonizing hard-to-electrify (HTE) sectors, which contribute significantly to CO2 emissions and pose obstacles to achieving climate neutrality. These sectors, including long-distance aviation, maritime freight transport, and steel production, have long lifetimes and are crucial bottlenecks in emission reduction efforts. Current models often rely on carbon-dioxide removal and bioenergy for abatement, but face obstacles like land constraints and sustainability concerns. The study evaluates five abatement options for HTE sectors, highlighting low-emission hydrogen, synthetic fuels, CCS, and CDR. However, these options are underutilized due to high costs and technological uncertainties. A comprehensive techno-economic assessment was conducted, analyzing key abatement options and sector-specific mitigation landscapes. The study underscores the importance of redirecting investments towards low-emission technologies to ensure a sustainable path to climate neutrality. Additionally, it addresses coordination challenges in fossil carbon capture and utilization, emphasizing the need for alternative abatement routes. The assessment also compares abatement costs for synthetic fuels and CDR compensation for aviation, revealing cost-competitiveness issues. This analysis provides insights into potential stranded assets and the role of fossil CCU in HTE sectors post-CCS availability.