Public perceptions of CO 2 transportation in pipelines Clair Gough n , Laura O'Keefe, Sarah Mander Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Manchester, Pariser Building, University of Manchester, M13 9PL, UK HIGHLIGHTS  Lay publics express good general knowledge of CO 2 but not of its specific properties.  Key concerns relate to risk and safety and ‘first of a kind' nature of CO 2 pipeline.  Group participants are sceptical about motivations of CO 2 pipeline developers.  Communities' trust in developer is a major element of their risk assessment. article info Article history: Received 11 December 2013 Received in revised form 19 March 2014 Accepted 28 March 2014 Available online 24 April 2014 Keywords: CCS Deliberative focus groups CO 2 pipeline abstract This paper explores the response by members of the lay public to the prospect of an onshore CO 2 pipeline through their locality as part of a proposed CCS development and presents results from deliberative Focus Groups held along a proposed pipeline route. Although there is a reasonable level of general knowledge about CO 2 across the lay public, understanding of its specific properties is more limited. The main concerns expressed around pipelines focused on five areas: (i) safe operation of the pipeline; (ii) the risks to people, livestock and vegetation arising from the leakage of CO 2 from the pipeline; (iii) the innovative and ‘first of its kind' nature of the pipeline and the consequent lack of operational CO 2 pipelines in the UK to demonstrate the technology; (iv) impacts on coastal erosion at the landfall site; and (v) the potential disruption to local communities during pipeline construction. Participants expressed scepticism over the motivations of CO 2 pipeline developers. Trust that the developer will minimise risk during the route selection and subsequent construction, operation and maintenance of the pipeline is key; building trust within the local community requires early engagement processes, tailored to deliver a variety of engagement and information approaches. & 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. 1. Introduction The UK Carbon Plan suggests that carbon capture and storage (CCS) is expected to play a significant role in the UK climate change mitigation strategy (DECC, 2011) with a goal for the commercial deployment of the technology during the 2020s (DECC, 2012). The key advantage of CCS is that it would allow the continued use of fossil fuelled power generation with a substantial reduction in the associated atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions, in the short to medium term. However, despite its extensive presence in future energy scenarios in the UK and beyond (IEA, 2013), CCS is yet to achieve widespread commercial deployment, with only 8 large scale projects in operation worldwide, none of which are fully integrated power generation projects (GCCSI, 2013). While work on public perceptions suggests that the general public are not opposed in principle, and could be supportive of the technology (Eurobarometer, 2011; Oltra et al., 2012; Sharp et al., 2009; Whitmarsh et al., 2011), there is limited experience of how local communities respond to actual projects. While some demonstration plants have been successfully installed, a number of CCS projects have encountered opposition from local communities and have, as a consequence, been cancelled or gone ahead in a reduced form (Brunsting et al., 2011b; Oltra et al., 2012). The CCS process involves the capture of CO 2 from a large point source (such as a power station) which is then transported to a permanent underground storage site (such as depleted oil or gas reservoirs, or saline aquifers). CO 2 can be transported in different ways by, for example, ship, road or rail; however, in the case of CCS, pipeline is the most economic and efficient option (IPCC, 2005). CO 2 has been successfully transported by pipeline, both over- and underground, in the US since 1972 and there are now over 6500 km of pipelines transporting around 50 million tonnes CO 2 (Mt CO 2 ) per annum (GCCSI, 2013, IEAGHG, 2014). In the UK, although there is an extensive network of pipelines transporting water, natural gas, petroleum products and oil, this experience does not extend to transportation of CO 2 by pipeline. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol Energy Policy http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2014.03.039 0301-4215/& 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. n Corresponding author. Tel.: þ44 161 306 3447. E-mail address: Clair.gough@manchester.ac.uk (C. Gough). Energy Policy 70 (2014) 106–114