Fixed Amidst Change: 20 Years of Media Coverage on Carbon Capture and Storage in Germany

Abstract

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies are controversially discussed worldwide. Germany is no exception. Here, CO2 storage is banned, although successful pilot plants were installed in the late 2000s. However, the recent burgeoning political interest in this technology prompts us to investigate why and how the (public) image of CCS technologies has changed over time and with regard to different CCS applications. For this purpose, we examine the coverage of CCS in German newspapers over the last 20 years on the basis of a quantitative analysis of about 4000 newspaper articles. A sample of 571 articles with different political orientations was studied qualitatively to analyse reporting on different CCS frames and actors. We find evidence that the media debate is shifting towards the application of CCS for negative emissions technologies and carbon removal. However, the negative image of CCS connected to coal fired power plants persists, suggesting that public and political support remain a problem for a technology fixed in binary negotiations for or against it.

Shaping information and knowledge on climate change technologies: A cross‐country qualitative analysis of carbon capture and storage results on Google search

“…We decided to include a query on CCS risk because risk is a highly debated aspect of the technology 3 both in CCS academic literature and legacy media (Otto et al, 2022). The inclusion of this search term allowed us to highlight more critical views on the technology 4 in the three countries.…”

“…Due to the absence of an active public discussion on the topic in the three countries and a generalized lack of lay knowledge on the topic (Dütschke, Alsheimer, Bertoldo, et al, 2022), we opted to use general search terms in our queries, 2 that is, queries that included what we found is the most common term used to designate the technology in print media in the three countries (Prades et al, 2022). We decided to include a query on CCS risk because risk is a highly debated aspect of the technology 3 both in CCS academic literature and legacy media (Otto et al, 2022). The inclusion of this search term allowed us to highlight more critical views on the technology 4 in the three countries.…”

“…It is reasonable to assume that this controversy is reflected in the media and online sources. Among studies on the social acceptance of CCS, only a few have included media analysis and these studies have mostly focused on legacy media (Brunsting et al, 2015; Buhr & Hansson, 2011; Otto et al, 2022; Shackley et al, 2012). However, there is an extensive tradition of examining the role of media in energy technology controversies, as they shape how innovation processes are perceived and discussed by the public (Dowd et al, 2011; Eklöf & Mager, 2013).…”