Promises and Pitfalls of Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage : Actors' Perspectives, Challenges, and Mitigation Deterrence in Sweden

Abstract: Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) methods, such as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), have gained traction in international climate policy arenas to meet net-zero goals. Even though companies operating facilities with large point sources of biogenic emissions, such as pulp and paper industries and energy utilities, could implement carbon capture, there are few studies that take a bottomup perspective to study these key actors. With more large point sources of biogenic emissions than any other country in Europe, Sweden has theoretical potential to implement BECCS. The Swedish Government seeks to leverage this potential to reach net-zero emissions by 2045. The aim of this thesis is to examine challenges for the implementation of BECCS in Sweden to contribute to sustainability transitions, and to analyze the prospect for deploying BECCS through the lens of mitigation deterrence. This lens is a way to study risks of foregone emissions, overshoots, and rebound effects when relying on a future carbon removal method such as BECCS. This thesis studies how BECCS is socially constructed by key actors in Sweden by analyzing perspectives held by companies, civil servants, political parties, and other key actors, through interviews and focus groups. This study also analyzes how plans to include BECCS impact net-zero strategies in Stockholm, the first city to have a pilot and demonstration facility for BECCS in Europe. Even though the Swedish Government has already been co-financing research and development on BECCS, there is very little planning regarding transport and storage of carbon dioxide. Key actors suggest that neighboring Norway is a logical starting point for geological storage. Therefore, this study includes a literature review on geological storage in the North Sea and Norway to problematize some of the complexities with storage. Based on the empirical material, the main challenges for implementing BECCS in Sweden include: (1) unclear distribution of responsibility for BECCS in sustainability transitions; (2) insufficient financial support, enabling policies, and structure for governing BECCS; and (3) transport and storage uncertainties. These challenges combine to create risks of mitigation deterrence, in the form of policymakers’ overoptimism towards the potential of BECCS. Furthermore, relying on BECCS can lead to less focus on minimizing residual emissions from other sectors. Since Sweden faces several challenges in implementing BECCS, this shows that the global promises for BECCS are more difficult to realize than is often portrayed by integrated assessment models.