Exploring public perceptions of carbon capture and utilization in the U.S

Abstract

Carbon capture and utilization (CCU) is an emerging climate change mitigation technology. At this early stage of development, there are still major uncertainties about the extent to which CCU can help mitigate climate change due economic and technological challenges. This study focuses on an additional complication in the development and deployment of CCU: how the public perceives its benefits, risks, and acceptability. In a nationally representative study of U.S. adults (N = 1200), we examined (1) overall support for CCU; (2) public expectations about CCU's effects on health, the economy, and climate change; and (3) whether perceptions vary depending on which aspects of CCU are discussed (general overview of CCU, proposed local facility, or using CCU-derived products). Using an oversample of Black, Hispanic/Latino, and Asian American participants (n = 471, total N = 1671), we also explored how beliefs differed across race/ethnicity and gender as well as the influence of psychological traits of environmentalist identity and aversion to tampering with nature. We found that the U.S. public had moderately positive views of CCU overall, with important nuances. First, people were less positive about CCU facilities in their home communities than they were about the idea of CCU in general or about products made with CCU. Second, people believed CCU would benefit the economy more than health or climate change. Third, individual differences in demographics and psychological traits matter for perceptions: (1) women were more wary of CCU than men, and (2) while White participants had more positive views about CCU the more they identified as environmentalists, the same was not always true for Hispanic or Black respondents. The study, thus, reveals the nuanced ways in which different American audiences may respond to CCU proposals.