Non-noble metal-based cocatalysts for photocatalytic CO2 reduction

•Cocatalysts loading is significant to tune photocatalytic CO2 reduction in terms of charge carrier separation, light harvesting, and CO2 adsorption ability.•Non-noble metal based cocatalysts, including oxides, sulphides, phosphides, metal carbides and nitrides, demonstrate promising CO2 reduction performance.•The recent progresses of non-noble metal-based cocatalysts for photocatalytic CO2RR, together with possible challenges and opportunities have been discussed.