The public and CCS: The importance of communication and participation in the context of local realities

The European project NearCO2 is investigating European public perceptions of CCS via case studies (both CCS and analogous energy infrastructure), surveys, and focus groups. (The NearCO2 project is funded under the FP7 Programme of DG Research at the European Commission. It was launched in April of 2009 and will terminate in March 2011.) The overall aim of the project is to investigate communication strategies that are designed to convey to stakeholders and to the public the advantages and risks of CO 2 capture and storage. These same strategies may also be used to involve these parties in local decision-making on CCS projects. This paper describes the results of the first phase of investigation of the NearCO 2 project, which focuses on lessons learned from consultation related to CCS project implementation and analogous developments in recent years. Eight case studies have been reviewed to help determine the nature of the communications and consultation strategies used by project developers as part of energy project approval processes. The chosen range of case studies represents a number of different regulatory environments throughout the European Union and a number of different technologies. The consideration of a number of different contextual factors as part of a multi-case study approach has helped to identify factors that underpin the relationship between communications and project outcomes, as a means of informing consultation exercises for future carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects.