Emissions reductions in industries is essential to achieve global and national climate goals, and technologies such as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) could contribute to carbon neutral industry in the Nordics. This research sheds light on the perspective of industries in Sweden and Finland including pathways towards carbon neutrality.
Negative emission technologies could be part of strategies to mitigate climate change in the future. BECCS is one such technology which could contribute to emissions reductions in the Nordics due to large point sources of biogenic emissions and storage potential within the region. Sweden and Finland have large point sources of biogenic emissions in the industrial sector at pulp and paper mills and district heating facilities, and Norway has carbon dioxide storage capacity under the seabed. Despite these preconditions for this technology, there are many other dimensions to consider.
This project studies the potential challenges and opportunities for BECCS in the Nordics, including political, technical, environmental and social aspects. In addition, this research provides a space for actors to convene and discuss climate change responsibilities and trade-offs of different future scenarios. Through interviews, workshops with actors, literature studies, and policy analysis, this project showcases the underlying tensions and complexities in achieving carbon neutral industry.
This PhD project is funded by the Swedish Energy Agency in the Graduate School in Energy Systems through the project “An integrative systems approach to a carbon neutral industry”. I collaborate with Adrian Lefvert from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology on this project. In addition, I am a member of the research team, Linköping University Negative Emission Technologies (LUNETs).