CCUS readiness: implications of interrelated technology, policy, and societal learning

This study investigates readiness to implement carbon capture, utilisation and storage in Europe, and how learning dynamics shape readiness. It draws on 12 semi-structured interviews and two Group Model Building workshops with expert stakeholders. The study examines how different dimensions of learning co-evolve and interact with other enablers and barriers through feedback processes and collectively shape deployment outcomes using qualitative system dynamics modelling. The findings include (1) a strong belief in the learning effect as an enabler, (2) a risk of ‘strategic waiting’ behaviour, (3) that the type of learning supported by the EU Innovation Fund (learning by diversity) does not meet the deployment need for learning by replication of multiple-of-a-kind projects, and (4) that systems thinking increases the perceived importance of societal factors. The study also discusses implications for EU industrial policy in relation to current approaches to accelerating CCUS deployment.