CCS & Improved Public Perception
- 26 May 2026
- Industry Insights
- Public Perception
CCS is an important tool for tackling climate change. Whether the public accepts this technology will strongly influence whether it can be deployed successfully.
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CCS is an important tool for tackling climate change. Whether the public accepts this technology will strongly influence whether it can be deployed successfully.
As policymakers consider options at their disposal to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, understanding the socio-economic impacts on local communities and industrial regions is crucial. Integrated assessment models (IAMs) often lack the economic, social and geographic detail to fully reveal the role that CCS and CDR technologies, such as BECCS, can play in national economies – noting that deployment of both CCS and BECCS has long continued to lag expectations. Providing a multi-regional, technology agnostic and transparent quantification of the social value of these technologies may be essential to unlocking this impasse.
This work looked into adopting a place-based approach to better understand responses of the public to the siting of projects involving low-carbon technologies. The research examined public reactions to an offshore wind farm, a power line proposal and a tidal energy project in the UK. Theorising the concept of ‘place’ has two aspects to it – a place as a locus of attachment/identity and a place as a centre of meaning. With the latter, these meanings are not fixed and people have different thoughts or feelings about them. ‘Place attachment’ describes the emotional bonds between people and particular environments (which can be attachment or non-attachment), where ‘place identity’ refers to the ways in which places reflect and maintain identities for individuals or groups. This work argues the value of capturing place attachments and their related meanings to explain local responses to siting of infrastructure proposals, but notes that each in isolation is insufficient to explain why. It was felt that there is value in conducting and comparing multiple case studies across contexts and sectors to further examine the influence of place on consumers.
The overall aim of the Social Research Network is “to foster the conduct and dissemination of social science research related to CCS in order to improve understanding of public concerns as well as improve the understanding of the processes required for deploying projects”.
The main deliverables from the study will be a series of Briefing Notes (BNs) covering the key information needs of key stakeholders, and a series of shorter Information Sheets (ISs) which provide a more basic introduction to the same topics. Note: the BN’s are the main deliverable of the study, and the ISs will be finalised and circulated after the technical report has been produced and disseminated. The study will work from, but not exclusively from, IEAGHG’s technical studies and reviews to identify the topics requiring BNs and the final BN’s will be reviewed by members of the Social Research Network, among others, as part of the peer review
The overall aim of the Social Research Network is “to foster the conduct and dissemination of social science research related to CCS in order to improve understanding of public concerns as well as improve the understanding of the processes required for deploying projects”. The objectives of the Network are as follows: Ensure high quality social science research Elevate reputation and acceptance of social science research Consistency of research Identifying gaps Promoting a learning environment Building capacity within the Network Translate information from studies into tools or applied lessons Apply insights to actual projects Interact with technical experts Communicate results to policy makers Ensure application is grounded in theory Create a clearing house of social science research
The two day workshop discussed methodologies and techniques, working in contentious environments, social science CCS research in Japan, learnings from other energy technology research, use of social media, knowledge gaps which need to be addressed in future research and future aims of the IEAGHG Social Research Network (SRN).
As this was the first IEA GHG Social Research Network meeting, group discussions took place to identify the overarching aims and objectives of the network. After much discussion and reiteration it was agreed that the overarching aim should be: To foster the conduct and dissemination of social science research related to CCS in order to improve understanding of public concerns as well as improve the understanding of the processes required for deploying projects
This report was commissioned by the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme (IEA GHG) to assist the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF) task force in the assessment of international graduate degrees at MSc and PhD level on Carbon Dioxide Capture, Storage, and Carbon Management (hereinafter CCSM) from universities. The scope of this report is to identify academic perspectives and programs in the areas of CCSM currently available in the United Kingdom (UK). The information assembled in this report was sought from the internet, email contacts and visiting key universities. This report addresses the major findings and discusses the current landscape of CCSM education in the UKThis report has concentrated on courses provided in the UK. In addition, mention should be made that from a base in the UK the IEA GHG organises an annual International CCS Summer School. This is hosted at different locations worldwide each time; Germany, Canada and Australia in the first three years. This course offers an intensive week in all aspects of CCS, from capture to storage, and non-technical topics such as economics, policy, regulation, safety and public communication.
To undertake this review of media impact IEA GHG agreed contracts with two specialist organisations. The first of these studies was agreed with the Copernicus Institute, University of Utrecht, the Netherlands and the second with Tyndall Centre, University of Manchester, UK. Two contracts were agreed because of the different approaches used and the different geographical distribution of the media searches proposed. The Copernicus Institute proposed to use a web based search tool to review media articles in the European press, the countries covered included; UK , Netherlands, France, Spain , Italy and Germany. In contrast, the Tyndall Centre study involved a dedicated exercise where an individual would review news articles in the English speaking press alone. This review covered newspaper articles in: UK, USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In each case, articles were scanned for three months before the release of the IPCC SRCCS (released week 39, 26th -30th September 2005) and for three months after. Overall, it was considered that the two studies gave a good global coverage of media response covering most regions of the world that were actively developing CCS projects with the noted exception of Japan.
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