Political Rationality and CCS Discourse

In 2007, the Norwegian prime minister made the promise that a ‘lunar landing’ was due at Mongstad Refining in 2014, involving full-scale cleaning of CO2. This was the prelude to a long and heated debate on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in Norwegian media. Through a discourse analysis we have identified two main media discourses related to the announced lunar landing; including important participants and arguments, as well as the positions taken by the actors of the discourses. The paper outlines the underlying structures of the public debate about CCS, and argues that the discourse is not really about CCS but politics in the form of narratives on promises, alliances and emotions caused by political actions. The paper shows the importance of media discourses for the legitimacy and willingness to finance CCS R&D.