Central to Work Package 8 of the Sitechar project is to advance public awareness of ongoing CCS site characterization activities by various public engagement activities. To this end, the core activity of this work package is to make available trustworthy generic and site-specific information on CCS and facilitate public engagement and public opinion shaping.
Parallel to technical site characterization in other work packages, partners in work package 8 will perform social site characterization and public engagement activities via the internet and information meetings. Site-specific information will be made available that is tailored to the assessed levels of public awareness, knowledge, and information needs. Employing newly developed, evidence based participation methods and a series of information events, the objective of this part of the project is to empower the local population on prospective CO2 storage sites to form an informed opinion concerning CO2 storage independently and in a balanced fashion. Results of public engagement will be evaluated to contribute to the evidence base of effective public engagement strategies.