Sustainability or eco fraud? Perception and communication of ‘carbon capture and usage’

Capturing and utilizing CO2 for the production of goods (CCU) is a novel approach to tackle the problem of rising emissions and global warming. Companies introducing CCU goods need to consider the public perception of the technology. A general concern is that the negative public attitude towards a related approach (capturing and transferring CO2 to subterranean storages-CCS) may impact the perception of CCU. Moreover, it is unclear how domain experts and laymen perceive CCU. In this paper, both questions are investigated by applying text and web mining methods. The results indicate that the CCS discourse seems to have minor to none impact on the discussion of CCU. However, the discussion of CCU shows strong discrepancies concerning perceived risks and potentials. Insights from the study are highly relevant for technical communicators engaged in the communication of novel technologies such as CCU.