Predictors of risk and benefit perception of carbon capture and storage (CCS) in regions with different stages of deployment

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a technological option for mitigating climate change. Public risk perception plays a key role in the decision whether it should be adopted at a large scale. In this study, a comparison was made between regions with different levels of CCS deployment: the three Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. While familiarity with the technology differed greatly among the different regions, predictors of risk perception were stable and unrelated to familiarity. Results were similar for benefit perceptions, but a comparison with results from a similar Swiss study seem to suggest that benefit perceptions of CCS are likely to be influenced by the national context of deployment. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.