General public reactions to carbon capture and storage: Does culture matter?

We scrutinise the controversial carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology from a cross-cultural perspective. The reaction of the public to CCS will considerably affect the development of the technology. Previous research has identified general and local mechanisms in how the general public reacts to CCS. Researchers have noticed that differences exist between countries, but the effects of cross-cultural differences have not been explored in detail. We argue that it is crucial to understand how public perceptions of the technology emerge and form in their individual contexts or embedded in large-scale cultural frameworks.

Public reaction to CCS is structured in two dimensions-risk perception and benefit perception-and we design a model with individual and national cultural level predictors. We indicate that effects of individual level variables such as familiarity with technology, or sociodemographic variables such as education, are important but their effects are likely mediated and confounded by the cultural setting people operate in. The results show that, in parallel with other factors such as trust, risk perception is affected by cultural dimensions such as uncertainty avoidance and the society's short-term or long-term orientation.

We provide a framework to understand why and how societies challenge the technology.