Bridging the social license gap: How community-directed communication shapes risk perception and acceptance of carbon capture and storage in the United States

Abstract

Achieving global climate targets demands rapid deployment of new technologies, yet technological readiness risks outpacing the social license needed for deployment. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) exemplifies this challenge: deployment is expanding rapidly, but public awareness remains low, and support is uncertain. Across three preregistered experiments with 5500 U.S. adults, including residents living near operational or planned CCS facilities, we investigate how community-directed communication shapes support for CCS projects. Drawing on the risk-as-feelings hypothesis, we test whether an accessible informational intervention increases local CCS support and examine two psychological mechanisms: reductions in perceived unknown-ness and dread. The intervention significantly increased support (β = 0.16, p < 0.001), with participants rating support an average of 0.47 points higher on a 7-point scale, and the effects lasted through the one-week follow-up. Reductions in reported feelings of unknown-ness and dread accounted for a significant portion of this effect, consistent with the view that community-directed communication operates through multiple psychological pathways. Higher reported public trust in CCS and greater trust in responsible companies were both associated with stronger support, though neither interacted with intervention effectiveness, suggesting information-based approaches can shift attitudes even in low-trust contexts. Comparing CCS with large-scale solar, partisan polarization in support appears substantially larger for solar, possibly reflecting differential familiarity with each technology, suggesting a potentially narrow window for building cross-partisan support before CCS becomes politically framed. These findings shed light on the psychological mechanisms linking community-directed communication and project support, with implications for policymakers and developers navigating the social dimensions of decarbonization.