MOSCOW, September 8 (RIA Novosti) – The British public is becoming more aware of fracking, yet just a few know about hydraulic carbon capture and storage technology (CCS) despite regular media campaigns, a UK public survey revealed.
"The UK Government has ring-fenced 1 billion GBP of public funds for (the) capital construction of CCS demonstration projects and will be committing many millions more within the next year to support operating costs. Yet, despite CCS featuring regularly in the media, awareness of its role or progress remains very low amongst the public and, unsurprisingly, support for CCS remains tepid and has actually declined over the past year,” Dr. David Reiner of the Energy Policy Research Group at Judge Business School, University of Cambridge was quoted as saying by the Crop Site on Monday.
The survey conducted by Cambridge University on behalf of the UK CCS Research Center surveyed some 2,000 people in late June finding only 20 percent of the British public to have some idea of CCS. The “persistently low” public knowledge on CCS could hinder the UK’s efforts to use the expensive technology to reach longer-term carbon targets tackling carbon emissions.
CCS support dropped to 28 percent this year while fewer than 2 percent surveyed had any knowledge of the country’s CCS demo projects.
The survey found that fracking awareness has increased with only 5 percent of those polled uninformed of the process. Those opposed to fracking make up 34 percent surveyed while 31 percent approve of the procedure of extracting oil and gas deep underground by drilling and fracturing rocks.
CCS is a technology which can capture up to 90 percent of carbon dioxide emissions produced from fossil fuel used in industrial processes. CCS is one of the only processes able to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, according to the Carbon Capture and Storage Association.
