As the climate debate is hotting up, so is the (re)search for finding powerful new materials for the efficient and cost-effective removal of CO₂ from flue-gas streams from power plants and other emission sources. Ionic liquids (ILs), exhibiting higher CO₂ solubility than conventional organic solvents, have received considerable interest as new CO₂ absorbents. The present paper evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of ILs, and provides an overview of the recent developments of ILs for CO₂ capture. In conventional ILs, CO₂ is absorbed by occupying the free space between the ions through physical absorption mechanisms. As another promising strategy, task-specific ILs have been studied that, by attaching functional groups to the ions, allow the formation of chemical bonds to improve the overall absorption capacity during the CO₂ capture process. Other strategies include using ILs as reaction media or as selective absorption materials.