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Is CO₂ capture and storage a technology we will accept? If we develop CCS on a large scale, it will have an impact on society in general and on the way we live. Significant resources have to be invested to cover for operating expenses, which could be used in alternative ways in society. A very real concern – in particular, for onshore CO₂ storage – is whether the public will allow storage activities ‘in their own backyard’.

Concerns and scepticism over CCS can be exemplified by the following questions and statements:

1 What is the point of CCS in a few rich countries, while other booming economies are increasing their emissions more than the reductions realistically achieved by CCS?

2 CCS will greatly increase the cost of power and of industrial production, so much of the industrial production will move to other countries with less stringent caps on CO2 emissions and with even more greenhouse gas emissions as a consequence!

3 Climate change is already happening, and we are too late and not able to perform enough CCS to avoid a major change in the climate.

4 Will the CO2 stored in the ground remain there or will it leak out into the atmosphere after a few years?

5 The CO2 could leak out of the ground and kill people!

6 Who is responsible in the long term for CO2 stored in the ground?

7 CCS is a methodology for the rich countries to continue their unsustainable way of life with an excessive use of energy!

8 In many countries, the challenge is to provide enough electricity, cars, and gasoline for the people. We cannot start CCS before we have developed our society into something closer to what they have in Europe and North America.

9 History shows that it will not be possible to make strong enough international agreements about CCS and other greenhouse gas emission limitations, so it is a waste of time and resources!

10 We should rather spend our money and engineering resources on renewable, non-fossil energy sources and technologies!

11 Some CCS scientists are suggesting use of CO2 to increase the production of oil and thereby putting at least the same amount of CO2 into the atmosphere as captured – why should we trust those people?

12 CCS requires the use of large amounts of chemicals, which will create the problem of handling toxic waste!

13 CCS requires the use of additional energy and will deplete fossil energy resources faster, resulting in less time to develop new energy sources.

The following statements could be made in favour of CCS:

1 The climate is changing and we should do what we can to reduce both the damage and the greenhouse gas emissions, which are a major cause of it!

2 In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly, CCS is the only realistic alternative to a substantial reduction in the use of fossil energy sources. Such a large reduction in the use of fossil energy sources could take us decades back in the development of our societies.

3 We have the knowledge, methodologies, and resources to perform large-scale CCS; what are we waiting for?

4 Underground storage of gases is something we know very well because we are today managing large-scale storage of natural gas.

5 We have experience with CO2 capture – there are so many plants out there in the chemical industry!

6 We have experienced with CO2 storage – there are many examples in the oil industry.

7 When storing CO2 using our best knowledge, the possible leakage rate of CO2 back to the atmosphere is so low that we can hardly measure it!

8 The rich countries should start CCS projects now to demonstrate to the world that this can actually be done, thereby setting the standard.

9 If we do not go for large-scale CCS, nuclear energy will be the alternative (Macfarlane and Miller 2007). There could be a lot of nuclear plants, most probably in many countries that do not have them today, and still no adequate long-term waste management, and possibly increased danger of nuclear war and terrorist actions with nuclear weapons and waste!

10 Large-scale CCS will cost us less than our military spending!

11 In order to cope with the challenge of man-made climate change, and because of its magnitude, there is no choice between CCS, renewable energy, nuclear energy, and energy conservation; we have to do them all!