The Barendrecht Syndrome

After years of protests from residents against Shell’s plan to inject 400,000 tonnes of compressed CO2 under a local shopping mall, the plan was finally scrapped last week by the new Dutch minister of economic affairs, Maxime Verhagen.

On Thursday, 4 November, Minister Maxime Verhagen informed the Dutch House of Representatives that the proposed CO2 sequestration project in Barendrecht would be stopped due to a ‘complete lack of local support’, as well as a delay of more than three years in obtaining permits. Nature carried the story on its website.

“It’s a shame,” says geoscientist Dr Karl-Heinz Wolf of the faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences (CEG), who had been assisting the project by answering questions from concerned residents. During this process, Wolf however also discovered that people did not believe the scientists, including Wolf and his students. Wolf blames this fact on the fear-mongering of activists opposed to the plan. “Once people are scared, they won’t listen to rational arguments,” says Wolf, adding that the effectiveness of fear-mongering has subsequently been labelled ‘The Barendrecht Syndrome’ and that activists from ‘Die Linke’ in Germany are now using the same tactics in Brandenburg as well.
“Social acceptance is a real issue,” says Professor Hans Bruining, also from the CEG faculty. “First you have to explain the need, explain that atmospheric CO2-levels are reaching two to three times pre-industrial levels, and that something needs to be done.” But Prof. Bruining also recognises that the word of an ‘authority’ is no longer simply taken granted. He further believes that this is a modern phenomenon: not only are engineers greeted with scepticism, but so too doctors, judges or even a minister (in Barendrecht, two Dutch government ministers were booed from the podium during meetings).

Nicole Huijts, from the faculty of Technology, Policy and Management, finds the case most ‘interesting’. From her perspective, as a researcher on the public acceptance of technology, Minister Verhagen’s decision to cancel the project shows that “the public does have influence.” Huijts says that attitudes of acceptance in Barendrecht were eroded by a lack of trust. The partnership between Shell and the government apparently inspired little faith.  “Once the public starts to think that the government is not serving their well-being, but some private interests instead, they will also distrust the information they are given.”

The Barendrecht fiasco does not however signal an end to research into Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) in the Netherlands. As part of the CATO-2 research programme, various techniques to capture CO2 from flue gases are under development. New national injection sites have not yet been identified, but it seems plausible that the less densely populated northern part of the country will now be targeted. It shall be interesting to see if and how local support can be won.

Shell meanwhile has decided to try its luck elsewhere. The Quest project in Alberta, Canada, and the Gorgon project in Australia are mentioned as the company’s next sequestration projects. Does this signify a loss for the Netherlands? Not necessarily, Prof. Bruining says. CCS is an international issue and Dutch scientists will remain involved through Shell.

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