D6.1.1: Informed public opinion about industrial CCS in the UK and the Netherlands (ALIGN-CCUS)

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cofounded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 programme ACT, Grant Agreement No 691712

Accelerating Low carboN Industrial Growth through CCUS

Deliverable Nr.D6.1.1: Informed public opinion about industrial CCS in the UK and the Netherlands

Dissemination level Public

Written by Dr. Kevin Broecks (TNO), Dr. Christine Boomsma

(Leiden University), Dr. Corin Jack (University of Edinburgh), Dr. Emma Ter Mors (Leiden University), Prof. Simon Shackley (University of Edinburgh), Renate Meier (Leiden University), MSc, Ana Serdoner (Bellona), MSc

31 May 2020

Reviewed by Pim Piek (TNO), MSc, Prof. Diana-Maria Cismaru

(National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, Bucharest)

Checked by WP6 Leader Dr. Emma ter Mors (Leiden University) 12 June 2020

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Acknowledgement

Since work for the ALIGN-CCUS project started in 2017, the Task 6.1 team have gained tremendously from the support and expertise of many individuals which elevated the quality of this work and without whom this work would not have reached its full potential. Here we would like to thank those people.

First, we wish to thank all of the experts who gave their valuable time and effort to review the information provided within the 6.1 survey. Their knowledge and expertise helped to ensure that only the highest quality, robust, relevant information was delivered to respondents. For this we wish to express our thanks to Dr. Peter Brownsort (SCCS), Dr. Clair Gough (University of Manchester), Dr. David Reiner (University of Cambridge), Dr. Stuart Gilfillan (University of Edinburgh), Prof. Paul Fennel (Imperial College London), Dr. Leslie Mabon (Scottish Marine Institute), Dr. Alaa Al Khourdajie (University of Edinburgh), Dr. Ben Wetenhall (Newcastle University), Prof. David Reay (University of Edinburgh), Prof. Andrea Ramirez (TU Delft), Tom Mikunda (TNO), MSc, Ing. Peter Van Os (TNO), Prof. Bob van der Zwaan (TNO) and one anonymous reviewer. We also wish to thank the wider members of the ALIGN-CCUS Work Package 6 team, including Pim Piek (TNO), MSc, and Prof. Diana-Maria Cismaru (National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, Bucharest) for their constructive feedback when reviewing early drafts of the report. Furthermore, we are grateful to any other persons who have not already been named that provided information or feedback throughout the duration of this work.

Finally, we wish to thank the people involved with the layperson review for their valuable contributions to improve the clarity of the survey for the wider public which was imperative to this work.

Information requests

For more information on the study or the survey, please contact Dr. Kevin Broecks via kevin.broecks@tno.nl.

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Executive summary

To meet countries’ CO2 emission reduction targets, the decarbonization of industrial processes needs to

accelerate (Wesseling et al., 2017). Many organizations envision Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as an important component of a portfolio of effective decarbonisation options for industry (IEA, 2016; IPCC, 2014). CCS can be a cost-effective option for reducing emissions in the short term. Governments in both the Netherlands and the United Kingdom (UK) have stipulated ambitions for implementing industrial CCS and have supported these ambitions with policy instruments. Yet, the implementation of industrial CCS may be hampered by a lack of public support for industrial CCS.

Previous studies showed that public support for CCS has been lacking in the past (de Best-Waldhober, Daamen, et al., 2012; L׳Orange Seigo, Dohle, & Siegrist, 2014; Upham & Roberts, 2011). A lack of public support may weaken political support, reduce deployment speed and affordability, and may prevent some technological configurations from being implemented (Watson, Kern, & Markusson, 2014). A lack of public support has even slowed or stalled the implementation of CCS in some countries. In the Netherlands, for example, developments for CCS had slowed down since cancelling the demonstration projects near Barendrecht and in the North of the Netherlands. In this study, we focus on the lack of public support as a potential barrier for CCS implementation in industry.

The objective of Task 6.1 of ALIGN-CCUS was to investigate the opinions of citizens in the Netherlands and the UK about industrial CCS, as well as factors that shape these opinions. Because the Netherlands and the UK will likely move towards the implementation of industrial CCS in the coming years, information about citizens’ opinions on industrial CCS is vital to support public engagement and site selection strategies in these countries. Projects that consider the different interests and concerns of the public may pre-empt public opposition surrounding the implementation of industrial CCS.

Previous research into citizens’ opinions of CCS is not entirely suited for understanding the interests and concerns of the public for the implementation of industrial CCS. Firstly, previous research has been done in the context of CCS in general or on applications that differ from industrial CCS. Secondly, the political and societal context differs strongly from previous studies, particularly regarding the salience of climate change in the public discourse. Considering the changing discourse and the ambitious goals for CO2 reduction in industry set by governments in

the Netherlands and the UK, the interests and concerns of citizens for technologies like CCS may have changed as well.

To investigate these interests and concerns, we formulated the following research questions:

 What is the awareness and knowledge level of citizens in the Netherlands and the UK for industrial CCS? What initial associations do these citizens have with industrial CCS?

 What is the overall opinion, acceptance and support of citizens in the Netherlands and the UK for industrial CCS after being informed about industrial CCS?

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 What factors can explain differences between citizens in informed opinion, acceptance and support for industrial CCS?

We assessed the opinions of 1961 citizens in the Netherlands and the UK in October 2019 using an online informed opinion survey. The respondents of the survey consisted of four sub-groups: two groups from the UK and two groups from the Netherlands. For each country, the samples were split between a general population sample and a sample of citizens that live close to industry. In this survey, respondents received information about industrial CCS before giving their opinion about the implementation of industrial CCS and about its outcomes. The results of this study highlight several areas of considerations for future industrial CCS communication and engagement. First, citizens’ awareness of CCS in the UK was higher than previous survey studies and for the Dutch context this was comparable with previous studies. However, knowledge about CCS was perceived to be low by most citizens in both countries. While citizens’ overall opinion about industrial CCS ranged from feeling very negative to very positive, on average citizens felt neutral to slightly positive about the implementation of industrial CCS in their country. Overall opinions towards industrial CCS as found in this study may suggest that industrial applications of CCS could be preferable to power CCS when compared with previous studies. Such findings may indicate hopeful prospects for future industrial CCS development as it relates to the current social context in both countries. Second, certain outcomes of industrial CCS implementation which were presented to citizens in this study demonstrated a positive influence on citizens’ overall opinion towards industrial CCS, in particular outcomes discussing effects on climate change and employment. Targeting information and messages supporting these arguments for industrial CCS is therefore critical for improving overall citizens’ acceptability of industrial CCS implementation. It is also just as important to address outcomes which had negative influences on overall opinion. Our findings both from the quantitative and qualitative data indicated that citizens were primarily concerned about the safety of CO2 transport and storage. This highlights a pivotal aspect for CCS communication which would

suggest that further information provisions should consider the full range of perceived risks, in addition to contingencies if CO2 leakages were to occur.

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D6.1.1: Informed public opinion about industrial CCS in the UK and the Netherlands (ALIGN-CCUS)

Acknowledgement

Executive summary

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