Carbon Capture and Storage in the Netherlands: protecting the growth paradigm?

Abstract

Current environmental policies often focus on decoupling economic growth from environmental degradation. An alternative environmental strategy is degrowth: “the equitable downscaling of production and consumption that increases human wellbeing and enhances ecological conditions at the local and global level” (Schneider et al., 2010:512). This decoupling vs. degrowth debate can be applied to the Dutch environmental policies, regarding the choice for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). This thesis has analysed the impact of the Dutch policy choice for CCS on the themes of climate, living environment, energy, economy and ethics, in regard to decoupling and degrowth policies. While CCS is found to be essential for the energy transition, several negative impacts are also found. The current emphasis on CCS in the Dutch policies is too large, which is partly since the feasibility of CCS at the proposed scale has not yet been proven. The public acceptance of CCS has been very low. However, the proposition of offshore CCS and the abolition to implement CCS at coal-fired powerplants, has reduced this opposition. Furthermore, CCS is a costly method for an interim solution to reduce emissions, especially since CCS could be seen as a method to delay the inevitable change toward renewable energy. It can therefore be agreed upon that CCS is not the ideal solution to combat climate change and reduce the environmental crisis. However, due to the time concerns it is imperative that emissions levels go down instantly to reduce the impacts of climate change. It is therefore imperative to ensure CCS is only used as an interim solution, while not hampering the renewable energy transition. When linking the debate on CCS to the impact of decoupling and degrowth environmental policies, CCS seems to be a perfect example of decoupling policies. While decoupling does not offer a complete solution, neither does degrowth since our current economic system and political will are not adaptable to a sudden systemic change. A revolution seems inconceivable, perhaps an evolution can lead our society towards a sustainable degrowth-like state. However, since the current climatic and environmental issue are urgent, there is no time to wait for an evolution. Therefore, both decoupling and degrowth policy measures should be implemented to combat climate change and reduce our environmental impact.