The role of carbon capture, utilisation and storage technologies in climate change mitigation

Abstract

The increasing concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, driven primarily by industrial activity and fossil fuel use, has made climate change mitigation one of the most urgent challenges of our time. Carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technologies have been recognised as important tools in climate change mitigation, but their deployment has consistently fallen short of projected potential. Rather than examining CCUS technologies solely from an engineering perspective, in this dissertation, CCUS technologies are viewed through three dimensions: social, political and economic.

This dissertation aims to provide a systemic outlook to CCUS technologies as a sociotechnical phenomenon and find out what role they play in climate change mitigation. This dissertation adopts a qualitative approach and synthesises three individual publications. Publication I investigates public attitudes towards CCUS technologies through Finnish media discourses, uncovering a cautiously positive attitude atmosphere. Publication II utilises a policy cycle approach to examine the regulatory and policy dimensions of CCUS technologies in Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania through interviews, revealing that regulatory uncertainty is a key barrier to commercial deployment. Publication III critically examines the gap between the projected potential and actual deployment of CCUS technologies and explores the business potential of the technologies through document analysis and interviews, finding that the business case is currently highly reliant on policy support.

Overall, the findings of this dissertation suggest that CCUS technologies are best understood as a temporary damage-control measure, bridging a fossil fuel system that must wind down and a renewable energy system that must scaleup. The dissertation contributes to the literature by advancing understanding of CCUS technologies as a sociotechnical phenomenon. The dissertation concludes that climate change mitigation is a wider issue than what technologies alone could fix.