The dependence on fossil fuels for energy production has led to increasing carbon dioxide (CO₂) gas concentration in the atmosphere from 280 ppm in the pre-industrial era to 406 ppm nowadays, causing the so-called global warming. Therefore, sustainable sources of energy are necessary to overcome this problem.  In this paper, we report the photoreduction of CO₂ into hydrocarbons fuel over ZnO semiconductor. ZnO photocatalyst was prepared via modified thermal decomposition method where the X-ray diffraction pattern proved the fabrication of wurtzite hexagonal structure of ZnO nanoparticles. CO₂ photoreduction was operated in CO₂-saturated 0.5 M NaCl solution using 150 W mercury (Hg) lamp as the light source. Methanol and acetaldehyde were the main products in the experiment with the maximum production yield of 10.9 and 16 µmol/g respectively. The high photocatalytic activity would be related to the presence of Cl^- ions, which acted as hole scavenger which decreased the rate of charge carriers recombination