This webinar was held on Thursday 17 July 2014, and provided an opportunity to hear Peta Ashworth and Dr. Anne-Maree Dowd (CSIRO) reflect on their ambitious attempt to synthesise the key findings from a comprehensive four-year-long body of social research into carbon capture and storage (CCS). The report, Synthesis of CCS Social Research: Reflections and State of Play 2013 was designed to provide an accessible summary and guide into the emerging thinking and best practices for those working to improve public understanding and acceptance of CCS technology. During this webinar, the authors presented an overview of the report findings, joining Global CCS Institute Public Engagement Manager, Kirsty Anderson, to discuss audience questions around the current state of play of CCS social research and best practice public engagement.

1. Findings and implications of a Synthesis of CCS Social
Research: Reflections and State of Play, 2013
Webinar – 17 July 2014 , 0900 CET

2. Peta Ashworth
With over 25 years’ experience in management and
leadership roles, Peta was most recently a lead social
science researcher for CSIRO’s Energy Flagship.
Expertise:
 Community outreach and engagement
 Exploring public reactions to the range of energy mitigation
technologies
 Investigating the nexus between climate mitigation and
adaptation opportunities.
 Sustainability and sustainable development
 Technology assessment
 Energy efficiency.

3. Dr Anne-Maree Dowd
Group Leader and Senior Social Scientist - CSIRO
Expertise:
 project and capability management
 social network analysis
 community engagement
 public awareness and acceptance of energy technologies
 behaviour change
 transformational adaptation decision making in Australian
Primary Industries.

4. QUESTIONS
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5. Synthesis of CCS Social Research:
Reflections and State of Play 2013
ENERGY TRANSFORMED FLAGSHIP

6. 6
Available at:
http://www.globalccsinstitute.com/public
ations/synthesis-ccs-social-research-
reflections-and-current-state-play-2013

7. Acknowledgements
We also acknowledge the critical role played by our research partners and their
individual contributions to the research, including:
• Shelley Rodriguez, Talia Jeanneret, CSIRO, Australia
• Sarah Wade: Wade LLC, Washington, USA
• Judith Bradbury, Gretchen Hund: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Battelle, USA
• Sallie Greenberg: University of Illinois, USA
• David Reiner and Olaf Corry: Cambridge University, England
• Simon Shackley and team: University of Edinburgh, Scotland
• Marjolein de best Waldhober and team: Energy research Centre of the Netherlands, the Netherlands
• Kenshi Itaoka and team: Mizuho Research Institute, Japan
• Edna Einsiedel and team, University of Calgary, Canada
• Isha Ray and Gabrielle Wong Parodi, University of California, Berkeley, USA
• Angela Colliver: CSIRO Education, Australia

9. Method
• Combined reference list of 25 reports
• 900 + references
• 14 articles cited 3 or more times
• Analysed these along side 25 reports
• 7 Key themes identified
9

10. Key themes arising
• Framing of CCS
• Importance of local context
• Trust
• Communication and engagement processes
• Information
• Risk perception
• Governance

11. A framework of interactions for CCS projects
=
Local context
Framing CCS
Information
Governance
Trust Risk perception
External influences
Level of acceptance
Communication and engagement processes

12. Recommendations – Framing CCS
• Perceptions of climate change differ from belief in climate change to
scepticism and denialism. In contextualising CCS, consideration should
be given to all perceptual positions and not focus on mitigation alone.
• Discussions should include a clearly defined rationale behind the
technology’s implementation and take into consideration relevant
national and international policies that underpin CCS.
• Comparison of energy options should be transparent and clearly
communicated and include issues from the wider energy debate.

13. Recommendations – Local context
• CCS developments should take careful account of local context of
potentially impacted communities in terms of social, cultural, economic
and political characteristic .
• Establish a baseline of background knowledge and awareness across
affected communities to better understand information needs, minimise
misunderstanding and avoid false expectations.
• In order to pre-empt and prevent any unplanned issues, consideration
should be given to local history and pre-existing concerns within a
community, as well as the local, state and national overarching
perspective.

14. Recommendations – Trust
• Identify trusted individuals, organisations and institutes within the
community to ensure that those communicating messages on CCS are
trusted.
• It is important that advice and information provided to stakeholders is
seen to be trusted, reliable, informative and is provided in such a way to
provide sufficient time for assimilation.
• To assist in smooth information transfer and feedback, consideration
should be given to establishing a citizen’s advisory committee or some
form of community participation group.

15. Recommendations – Communication & engagement
• Processes should target gaps in local knowledge around CCS that have
been identified through baseline understanding of local communities
• Project developers need to engage in meaningful dialogue with
stakeholders and the public well in advance of project plans being
finalised, making use of trusted advocates within different stakeholder
groups.
• Encouraged to use a wide variety of engagement processes and tools
that promote open and transparent dialogue and help to establish
effective relationships.
• Experienced, high level communication/engagement resources should
be embedded in a CCS project development team.

16. Recommendations – Information
• Information provided to stakeholders needs to be wide ranging (i.e.
formal, informal, technical, simple), and delivered by a variety of reliable
sources in order to develop trust and ensure stability of opinion.
• Is to be balanced, of high quality, relevant, of minimal complexity,
appropriately toned and readily accessible to a range of stakeholders.
• Develop information delivery programs tailored to different audiences
which could be delivered via educational institutions, and include
curricula that addresses the wider context for CCS (climate change,
energy options and potential mitigation solutions).

17. Recommendations – Risk perception
• To help minimise perceptions of risk, two-way communication processes
that recognise individual risk perceptions and tailor responses are
considered an essential component for allaying fears.
• If risk perceptions are high, some flexibility in project plans which allow
the public to influence the outcome can be helpful to minimise such risk
perceptions.
• Risk communication should include information that adequately
addresses the multiple facets of risks associated with CCS including
capture, transport, and storage
• Risk communication personnel should be well trained to be aware of,
recognise and be sensitive to the varying perspectives associated with
risks surrounding CCS.

18. Recommendations – Governance
• Projects require clearly defined processes for communities and other
key stakeholders to provide input into project decisions - helping to
develop a partnership approach toward shared outcomes.
• Legal and regulatory frameworks surrounding CCS need to be aligned
across local, state and national contexts, to reduce conflict between
different levels of government, and minimise the erosion of public
confidence in the project.
• A shared vision across project funders, development teams and within
the teams themselves helps to create a unified vision for the need for
the project.

19. How it fits together
=
Local context
Framing CCS
Information
Governance
Trust Risk perception
External influences
Level of acceptance
Communication and engagement processes

20. To summarise:
• It is not rocket science
• There is a need for mutual respect
• Time and flexibility is essential
• Acknowledge what has happened in the past
• Previous demonstrations will ultimately help build confidence
20

21. Peta Ashworth
t +61 409 929 981
e peta@petaashworth.com
Dr Anne-Maree Dowd
t +61 7 3327 4468
e anne-maree.dowd@csiro.au
w www.csiro.au
ENERGY TRANSFORMED FLAGSHIP
Thank you

22. QUESTIONS / DISCUSSION
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23. Please submit any feedback to: webinar@globalccsinstitute.com
Report available from: www.globalccsinstitute.com/publications/synthesis-ccs-
social-research-reflections-and-current-state-play-2013