From the Editor: It’s a trust thing [Global Gas Perspectives]

Globally, most modelled pathways that limit global warming to less than 2°C require significant, multi-gigatonnes/year (Gt/year) deployment of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology by 2050.

In the US, reaching net zero by 2050 may be impossible without as much as 1.76 Gt/year of CCS capacity by 2050.

But a recent paper from professional services company Worley and Princeton University suggests none of this may be possible because the public doesn’t trust CCS and, perhaps more surprisingly, CCS developers don’t trust their partners, the governments they work with and (maybe not so surprising) environmental organisations, many of which don’t trust CCS and are convinced its deployment is merely a ploy to ensure continued development of oil and gas infrastructure.

Although the lack of trust from environmental groups is to be expected, as is perhaps distrust from the public, what is particularly surprising about the Worley/Princeton research, which was gleaned by surveys of hundreds of professionals in the CCS space and thousands of broader stakeholders and members of the public, is the lack of trust within the CCS industry.

Within the CCS professionals group, 64% were found to be “generally skeptical” about information provided by their own partners in CCS projects, while 59% didn’t fully trust information from regulators and 57% expressed skepticism about information from environmental organisations.”

It's an unsettling revelation; lack of trust in environmental groups and even government agencies is understandable – exhibit one could be the extended time it took the Canadian government to codify its CCS incentives package – but the lack of trust within the CCS space, and in particular amongst partners in the same project, is most troubling.

First a relationship, then a project

“We are strong CCS advocates, but this research indicates that unless participants build durable trust with each other, its potential to deliver a critical means of cutting carbon emissions in the US will be more precarious,” says Sue Brown, Worley’s executive group director, sustainability & corporate affairs.

And the trust deficit, she said, extends beyond CCS, reaching into all energy infrastructure developments, where the relationships between developers, governments, financiers and civil society are seen by many as having the most impact on whether projects ever get built. Time and effort must be invested, Brown says, in building durable trusts through the sharing of information, collaborating and creating shared value.

“Net zero infrastructure projects need to be delivered differently,” Brown says. “Building durable trust is imperative to speed up project final investment decisions (FID) and delivery in ways that create positive net outcomes for stakeholders. If we do not accelerate a paradigm shift in approach, we will simply fail to build the infrastructure of climate response in time. Indeed, we may not even get halfway.”

It's certainly not a new concept. Andy Calitz, who led the C$40bn LNG Canada project to a final investment decision (FID) in 2018, had a particularly adroit way of voicing what was needed to cobble together support amongst 23 First Nations, three levels of government and five international partners, all of whom had their own ideas of how the project should be built: “First, build relationships. Then, build a megaproject.”

Chris Greig, senior research scientist at Princeton University’s Andlinger Center for Energy & the Environment, echoes Calitz’s philosophy. Acceptance of any CCS project can be increased by the timely dissemination of information, which is seen to reduce perceived risks and increase perceived benefits, he says.

“This further implies that early, authentic engagement with host communities and other stakeholders will help underpin the trust needed to accelerate deployment. Given that there are no plausible pathways to net zero that do not involve large scale deployment of CCS technology, building durable trust between infrastructure participants is essential.”