The present invention relates to a method of reacting starting materials with an activating group, namely alkanes carrying a leaving group and/or olefins, with carbon dioxide under transition metal catalysis to give carboxyl group-containing products. It is a special feature of the method of the present invention that the carboxylation predominantly takes place at a preferred position of the molecule irrespective of the position of the activating group. The carboxylation position is either an aliphatic terminus of the molecule or it is a carbon atom adjacent to a carbon carrying an electron withdrawing group. The course of the reaction can be controlled by appropriately choosing the reaction conditions to yield the desired regioisomer.