Argument map for carbon capture and storage

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) can contribute to the deep CO2 cuts which are necessary to achieve climate change targets. There is, however, a strong public debate whether CCS should be implemented. In this article we give an overview of the arguments for and against based on the opinion of Dutch stakeholders. CCS is an umbrella term for a wide range of different configurations of separate technologies. Some arguments are applicable in general for all CCS chains; some are only valid for a particular configuration. In this paper we will discuss these arguments in the context of the background of different CCS configurations. The argument that CCS costs a lot of extra energy, for instance, is valid for the power sector, not for gas treatment. A good understanding of the CCS debate and the arguments used may help with developing a better energy policy and may give direction to future research and technology development.

► This article presents an overview of arguments for and against CCS.
► This overview is necessary to understand and contribute to the debate on CCS.
► We show that the validity of arguments depends on the configurations of the CCS chain.