{"title":"The politics of carbon management in Austria: Emerging fault lines on carbon capture, storage, utilization and removal","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.erss.2024.103697","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>With the proliferation of net zero targets in climate policy and corporate climate governance, the question of how to deal with greenhouse gas emissions considered hard-to-abate is attracting growing attention. In this context, the notion of carbon management has emerged on the political agenda – an umbrella term typically encompassing carbon capture and storage (CCS), carbon capture and utilization (CCU) and carbon dioxide removal (CDR). Here, we investigate the emerging politics around the design of a national carbon management strategy in Austria, a country which can be considered a yet understudied latecomer regarding CCS and novel CDR methods including BECCS and DACCS. Based on expert interviews with policy actors as well as qualitative document analysis, we identify four actor coalitions as well as key fault lines. These fault lines specifically relate to a) whether the CCS ban in Austria should be lifted, and b) which economic sectors get access to carbon storage and transport infrastructure as well as subsidy schemes (selective vs. unrestricted integration). We also find that framing CCS, CCU and CDR under the umbrella term carbon management produces specific coalitional effects while simultaneously concealing contested climate policy choices – a finding with wider implications beyond the Austrian case.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":48384,"journal":{"name":"Energy Research & Social Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":6.9000,"publicationDate":"2024-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629624002883/pdfft?md5=7acb4b5e48c72a43ad10a05676cc9bf8&pid=1-s2.0-S2214629624002883-main.pdf","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Energy Research & Social Science","FirstCategoryId":"96","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214629624002883","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
With the proliferation of net zero targets in climate policy and corporate climate governance, the question of how to deal with greenhouse gas emissions considered hard-to-abate is attracting growing attention. In this context, the notion of carbon management has emerged on the political agenda – an umbrella term typically encompassing carbon capture and storage (CCS), carbon capture and utilization (CCU) and carbon dioxide removal (CDR). Here, we investigate the emerging politics around the design of a national carbon management strategy in Austria, a country which can be considered a yet understudied latecomer regarding CCS and novel CDR methods including BECCS and DACCS. Based on expert interviews with policy actors as well as qualitative document analysis, we identify four actor coalitions as well as key fault lines. These fault lines specifically relate to a) whether the CCS ban in Austria should be lifted, and b) which economic sectors get access to carbon storage and transport infrastructure as well as subsidy schemes (selective vs. unrestricted integration). We also find that framing CCS, CCU and CDR under the umbrella term carbon management produces specific coalitional effects while simultaneously concealing contested climate policy choices – a finding with wider implications beyond the Austrian case.
期刊介绍:
Energy Research & Social Science (ERSS) is a peer-reviewed international journal that publishes original research and review articles examining the relationship between energy systems and society. ERSS covers a range of topics revolving around the intersection of energy technologies, fuels, and resources on one side and social processes and influences - including communities of energy users, people affected by energy production, social institutions, customs, traditions, behaviors, and policies - on the other. Put another way, ERSS investigates the social system surrounding energy technology and hardware. ERSS is relevant for energy practitioners, researchers interested in the social aspects of energy production or use, and policymakers.
Energy Research & Social Science (ERSS) provides an interdisciplinary forum to discuss how social and technical issues related to energy production and consumption interact. Energy production, distribution, and consumption all have both technical and human components, and the latter involves the human causes and consequences of energy-related activities and processes as well as social structures that shape how people interact with energy systems. Energy analysis, therefore, needs to look beyond the dimensions of technology and economics to include these social and human elements.