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Addressing the Climate Crisis: What Factors are Related to the Awareness and Acceptance of Carbon Capture and Sequestration as a Solution? Lazarus Adua*, Lazarus Adua, Kate Magargal, Sarah Dyer,

It is unquestionable that climate change has become the most defining environmental challenge of our time, and it is caused by the emission and atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases. While transitioning away from the burning of fossil fuels dominates discussions about and efforts to limit the emission of carbon, the most dominant and long-lived greenhouse gas, carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) has been proposed as a viable supplementary solution. However, issues related to public awareness and apprehensions about CCS remain major challenges to its widespread implementation.  While some among the public, especially those with social connections to the oil and gas sector, see it as an anti-fossil fuel trojan horse designed to hurt the industry in the long-run via justification of the need to limit carbon emissions, others see it as a pretext to prolong the burning of fossil fuels. In this study, we examine factors related to the awareness and acceptance of CCS. We focus on socioeconomic factors (education and income), demographic factors (age, race, and gender), political ideology, rural-urban residence, and social connections to the fossil fuel industry. The study is based on a state-wide survey of Utah residents. In terms of awareness, preliminary results suggest education, age, and social connections to the fossil fuel industry are the most salient predictors, while political ideology and social connections to the fossil fuel industry emerge as the chief predictors of the acceptance of CCS.