Evaluation of risk perception and public acceptance of CO2 underground storage by factor analysis

Abstract

The public acceptance is an important issue for carbon dioxide (CO2) underground storage technology to be utilized in practice. This chapter presents a study that tried to analyze the way general public perceives the technology and also to evaluate the kinds of information that would affect the public acceptance and how. The study investigated the risk and risk-benefit perceptions of CO2 underground storage through analyses based on a questionnaire survey conducted on university students. In addition, perception changes were investigated by providing a set of relatively detailed information on global warming and CO2 underground storage. While the initial risk perception was relatively large for CO2 underground storage, the risk perception decreased by providing the information. Contrary to the common anticipation, the “Unknown Risk” perception was almost unchanged even after providing the information. To decrease the “Unknown Risk” perception, the development of stored CO2 monitoring technology, for example, would be crucial to further increase the public acceptance of CO2 underground storage.