Overcoming Public Uncertainty About CCS Tech

Overcoming public uncertainty about CCS technology

Limited awareness of CCS technology and its benefits represents a hurdle to widespread acceptance and adoption. This project examines this limited awareness and explores communication messages that might educate broader‐scale acceptance and adoption of CCS technology. This project comprises three studies and two surveys. Study 1 is a content analysis of media coverage (including company, industry, government messaging) about CCS to understand how the issue is discussed in the media. How the issue is framed (e.g., as nascent technology? as a solution to climate change?) influences the way audiences think about CCS. Study 2 entails a nationally representative survey of Americans (with an increase in sampling of respondents across several key geographic areas where adoption of CCS technologies is likely to be most prevalent) to generate a baseline understanding of current attitudes and beliefs about CCS. Study 3 draws on insights of the previous attitude survey to generate and test messages about CCS in a second survey of a nationally representative sample. This second survey also measures attitudes to CCS, giving us longitudinal insight into educating the public over time. For CCS to gain widespread support among the public, it is imperative to understand the evolving landscape of CCS public opinion and to develop effective messages targeted at general audiences.

Share this content