Introduction

CO2 Capture and Storage (CCS) is becoming more visible to the general public and as such, more and more stakeholders are taking an interest as the technology progresses from pilot scale to larger demonstration and commercial scale initiatives. With this increase in visibility and the increased focus of many groups of interested parties, it is important that there is a repository of information accessible by all stakeholders and interested parties to allow them to learn about the subject and its intricacies without having to try to comprehend verbose and lengthy reports and scientific papers.

Recognising this need, IEAGHG invited tenders from key organisations and research bodies around the world who were felt to have the capability to extract this information from IEAGHG’s library of reports and from other sources, and present it in a plain and accessible way, without reverting to excessive technical jargon. The successful tender was a consortium bid from the University of Edinburgh, Scottish Centre for CCS and CSIRO in Australia.

Key Messages

• There is a need to address misconceptions about CCS; when questioned, it became apparent that a large number of people have preconceptions of CO₂ that actually relate to CO.

• The primary concerns on CCS centre on environmental impacts, leakage and health and safety issues, and these need to be acknowledged, and the stringent controls that are put in place to control these issues explained.

• In general the images used to illustrate CCS are inadequate; the images are dated, often show all options deployed in the same place, are not to scale, and neglect to show the human element – the inclusion of people and buildings in graphics would greatly aid perception.

• Numerous examples were identified whereby through correct and proactively handling, public engagement and involvement were initiated from early stages of projects, and this can drastically improve support for CCS; examples included using a pilot experiment in Scotland as a tourist attraction, and local populations in South Africa being invited to name a project.