Carbon capture and storage: Frames and blind spots

The European Union (EU) carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration programme stands out for the speed with which financial support was agreed to, the size of this support, and its unusual format. This paper sets out to examine CCS policymaking in the EU by analysing the way this technology was framed. It draws up a simple model of technology framing with two variants. The first one describes the creation of “mainstream frames” of technologies in policymaking. The second one explains the effects of a “hegemonic frame”, namely the weakening of evaluation criteria and the increased salience of “blind spots”. On this basis, this paper explains the global mainstreaming of a CCS frame and its transformation into a hegemonic frame in the EU. Finally, the paper reviews the blind spots in this hegemonic frame and their impact on EU policy.