Benefits Of Carbon Capture And Storage Research Articles

Is Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Really So Expensive? An Analysis of Cascading Costs and CO2 Emissions Reduction of Industrial CCS Implementation on the Construction of a Bridge.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an essential technology to mitigate global CO2 emissions from power and industry sectors. Despite the increasing recognition of its importance to achieve the net-zero target, current CCS deployment is far behind targeted ambitions. A key reason is that CCS is often perceived as too expensive. The costs of CCS have however traditionally been looked at from the industrial plant perspective, which does not necessarily reflect the end user's one. This paper addresses the incomplete view by investigating the impact of implementing CCS in industrial facilities on the overall costs and CO2 emissions of end-user products and services. As an example, we examine the extent to which an increase in costs of raw materials (cement and steel) due to CCS impacts the costs of building a bridge. Results show that although CCS significantly increases cement and steel costs, the subsequent increment in the overall bridge construction cost remains marginal (∼1%). This 1% cost increase, however, enables a deep reduction in CO2 emissions (∼51%) associated with the bridge construction. Although more research is needed in this area, this work is the first step to a better understanding of the real cost and benefits of CCS.

Understanding public support for carbon capture and storage policy: The roles of social capital, stakeholder perceptions, and perceived risk/benefit of technology

As climate change mitigation technologies emerge, there is an increased need to understand public support for the technology and the policies that will shape or thwart its evolution. Of particular importance are the communities most directly impacted. The current study focuses on a random sample of 970 adults in eight counties within the oil and gas industry-reliant region of southeast Texas in order to explore support for carbon capture and storage (CCS), which is a climate change mitigation technology that has seen a great deal of investment in that area. Results of ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis and general linear modeling (GLM) suggest that policy support –individual support and perceived community support – is dependent on perceived risks and benefits of CCS, community-focused perceptions (including Bourdieu's social capital), and perceptions about stakeholders (trustworthiness and expected role in CCS policy making). One key takeaway is that social capital was both a predictor and moderator in community-level CCS support and helped explain the hidden effects of risk perception of CCS and CCS knowledge on community-level CCS support. Implications for public policy and stakeholder relations are discussed.

Framing effects on public support for carbon capture and storage

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) involves trapping carbon dioxide (CO2) from power generation and heavy industrial processes and directing it into long-term geological storage (e.g., in depleted oil fields or saline aquifers). In doing so, CCS could facilitate global carbon abatement efforts. Yet, it remains controversial with high-profile public opposition to particular CCS developments. For instrumental, normative and substantive reasons, it is increasingly recognised that public acceptance of CCS as a vital precondition for its commercial-scale rollout. While much is known about factors influencing public support for CCS, relatively few cross-national studies have so far been undertaken. Here, we present findings from a large-scale international experimental study of public perceptions of CCS, to examine how individual, geographical and informational factors influence support for CCS. In particular, we compare the lens through which CCS is seen – as a ‘techno-fix’ climate change solution, as reusing a waste product (through Carbon Dioxide Utilisation [CDU]), or as part of a systemic approach to climate change mitigation. Pairing CCS with CDU led to higher support for CCS, although information frames interacted with national and individual-level factors. Depending on which CCS lens is chosen, different groups will be more or less likely to support CCS implementation. As with other issues, targeting CCS information to audience values is likely to be more effective than untargeted communication. Our findings also show mentioning (modest) costs of deploying CCS can lead to lower support. Discussing CCS costs should be done in the context of costs of broader energy system transformation and of not mitigating climate change so that the public can deliberate over the relative risks and benefits of CCS and alternatives in the context of broader sustainability pathways.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) experts’ attitudes to and experience with public engagement

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is widely seen as a key technology for mitigating climate change. Public engagement with CCS is important for a range of reasons, but previous work has not explored the perceived rationales for, or benefits of, public engagement amongst CCS experts (including those who engage the public themselves). Here, we present mixed-methods research (comprising expert interviews and an online survey) to elucidate these rationales, and expose CCS expert views of public engagement. Our findings indicate some differences in perceptions of public engagement with CCS (and of the risks and benefits of CCS) between those who engage directly with the public and those who do not: the former tend to have a more nuanced view of engagement, and are also more enthusiastic about the benefits of CCS, than the latter. Overall, CCS experts recognise the importance of public engagement for the roll-out of CCS for both substantive and instrumental rationales, and are largely aware of the range of factors (knowledge, values, trust, etc.) influencing public engagement. Nevertheless, the relatively low salience of early and substantive engagement amongst CCS experts suggests there is room for improving the flow of learning from the public engagement research literature to those charged with delivering it.

A Behavioural Economics Analysis of the Impact of Information and Knowledge on CO2 Capture and Storage Acceptance in the European Union

The paper analyses the impact that European Union citizens’ access to information on climate change has on their awareness of carbon capture and storage (CCS), perceived risks and benefits of using CCS and stated choice of preferred CCS options. We use a Eurobarometer dataset about awareness/acceptance of CCS and run structural equation models (SEM) for twelve EU countries with an average sample size of 1,100 observations per country. Results between the different countries are comparable and, alongside other determinants, access to information sources will significantly impact CCS awareness, perceived risk and benefits of CCS and preferences towards options of CCS.