Project Supervisors

Although CO2 capture and storage (CCS) technologies are heatedly debated, they are widely considered to be a possible technical option to mitigate carbon dioxide from large-point sources. National and international political decision-makers devote a growing amount of capacities and financial resources to CCS in order to develop and demonstrate the technology and to diminish possible economic and environmental risks. If researchers may overcome current barriers, the international diffusion of CCS is a possible mid- to long-term scenario. The presented master thesis concentrates on the influence of policy incentives on CCS diffusion and examines the following research question: Which policy strategy is needed to stimulate the international diffusion of carbon capture and storage technologies in the power sector? Based on the analysis of innovation-specific (e.g. CCS competitiveness and compatibility), market-related (e.g. national CO2 discharges and storage capacities) and institutional determinants (e.g. existing national and international policy frameworks) of CCS diffusion, the paper discusses the suitability of various national and international policy instruments to induce the international deployment of CCS. Afterwards, three CCS diffusion paths are derived from fundamentally different carbon stabilisation scenarios which include climate policy measures to stimulate the adoption of CO2 mitigation technologies