Carbon Capture and Storage: the solution to climate change or to the fossil fuels’ survival? Critically framing EU ́s discourses around CCS.

Abstract

In response to global demands for the phase-out of fossil fuels to address the climate crisis, the fossil fuel industry and the apparatus constructed around it have endorsed various strategies. From outright denial, these actors have shifted to a more subtle form of obstruction characterized by delay tactics and deceptive practices. Through a qualitative frame analysis and critical discourse analysis of European official websites and documents around carbon capture and storage (CCS), three major frames emerged: F1. legitimacy; F2. technological optimism and F3. bridge technology. This thesis argues that the fossil fuel industry, and the structure of obstruction surrounding it, use CCS technology as a delay tactic by disguising it as the main technology capable to phase-in the energy transition. The deceptive use of CCS technology allows the industry to divert attention and resources from renewable energy sources, enabling the reinforcement of carbon lock-in and the strengthening of the incumbents ́ fossil fuel regime, while safeguarding their power and hegemony and implicitly denying alternative organizations of society that are not dependent on fossil fuels.

In response to global demands for the phase-out of fossil fuels to address the climate crisis, the fossil fuel industry and the apparatus constructed around it have endorsed various strategies. From outright denial, these actors have shifted to a more subtle form of obstruction characterized by delay tactics and deceptive practices. Through a qualitative frame analysis and critical discourse analysis of European official websites and documents around carbon capture and storage (CCS), three major frames emerged: F1. legitimacy; F2. technological optimism and F3. bridge technology. This thesis argues that the fossil fuel industry, and the structure of obstruction surrounding it, use CCS technology as a delay tactic by disguising it as the main technology capable to phase-in the energy transition. The deceptive use of CCS technology allows the industry to divert attention and resources from renewable energy sources, enabling the reinforcement of carbon lock-in and the strengthening of the incumbents ́ fossil fuel regime, while safeguarding their power and hegemony and implicitly denying alternative organizations of society that are not dependent on fossil fuels.