Démontrer les techniques de captage, transport et stockage du CO2 (CTSC) pour le climat

un modèle de développement contesté

Abstract

The present article examines public opposition linked to demonstration projects of CO₂ capture, transport and storage (CTSC) in the European Union. CTSC brings together several techniques, which aim to separate and capture carbon dioxide from its industrial sources, to transport it to a place of storage and to isolate it from the atmosphere in the long run. In a context in which climate change becomes a major issue, storage strategies aiming to manage industrial CO₂ emissions gain in power. During the last decade, the European Commission has established a partnership with industrial actors in an initiative of CTSC « demonstration » organized around the development of on-site demonstrators, in order to bring these techniques to a commercial stage. This article focuses on two industrial projects terminated in 2010. The analysis offers a frame for understanding the relationship between transnational politics and its local level. It reveals the limits of a technological development model that transfers the challenge of demonstrating CTSC at a European level to the demonstration sites, while ignoring the potential for politicizing this demonstration at a local level.