The present disclosure pertains to materials for CO2 adsorption at pressures above 1 bar, where the materials include a porous material with a surface area of at least 2,800 m2/g, and a total pore volume of at least 1.35 cm3/g, where a majority of pores of the porous material have diameters of less than 2 nm as measured from N2 sorption isotherms using the BET (Brunauer-Emmett-Teller) method. The present disclosure also pertains to materials for separation of CO2 from natural gas at partial pressures of either component above 1 bar, where the materials include a porous material with a surface area of at least 2,200 m2/g, and a total pore volume of at least 1.00 cm3/g, where a majority of pores of the porous material have diameters of greater than 1 nm and less than 2 nm as measured from N2 sorption isotherms using the BET method.