The Edinburgh Science Festival was abuzz with activity this year and, once again, SCCS brought a range of participatory activities to the table that provided audiences with a nuanced perspective on how carbon, carbon dioxide (CO2) and CCS fit into the climate action puzzle. As part of The University of Edinburgh (UoE) programme, three separate SCCS events took place across the 2-week festival, attracting hundreds of budding scientists and others simply keen to find out more. (All image credits: SCCS).
Carbon Stock
An engaging, hands-on ”Carbon Stock” display, developed by SCCS - Dr Romain Viguier (Business Development & Project Manager), Dr Erika Palfi (Scientific Research Officer, and Richard Lo Bianco (Digital Communications Officer) - and hosted at Dynamic Earth, stood out as a highlight. The event introduced the concept of the global carbon budget, emphasising the urgent need to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, restore natural carbon sinks such as forests and wetlands, and implement engineered solutions such as Direct Air Capture (DAC) and Industrial Carbon Capture and Storage to reduce and remove atmospheric emissions. The team also welcomed PhD student Isabella Cavalcante Quaranta, who presented an innovative example of DAC technology currently being developed in project SolDAC (https://soldac-project.eu/) by the UoE group led by Dr Giulio Santori. This cutting-edge technology highlights just one of Scotland's many contributions to addressing climate change.
Carbon Stock display and Carbon Cards Game
While parents delved into the intricacies of carbon budgets and advanced technologies, their children were equally engaged with an educational carbon card game. Inspired by the classic Top Trumps card game, this set of play cards helped youngsters learn key information about the carbon budget. For example, we are used to measuring atmospheric CO2 in ppm (parts per million), but did you know that the atmosphere contains an estimated 875 gigatonnes (Gt) of carbon (1 Gt = 1 billion tonnes)? This total increases by 5 Gt every year!
Hopes for a cleaner future.
CO2 Walk
You may know that CO2 was first discovered and named in the late 18th century by Joseph Black. What you may not know (until now perhaps) is that the locations in which Black lived, worked and is now buried are all in central Edinburgh in an area covering just 1km in diameter. A far cry from today’s world of CO2-intensive international travel! This was just one of the discoveries made by the 29 participants of the CO2 Walk, as Richard Stevenson and Richard Lo Bianco guided groups on a whistlestop tour of Black’s chemistry labs (today’s Old College) at UoE, his experimental glassware displayed at the neighbouring National Museum of Scotland and his final resting place in the famous Greyfriar’s Kirk cemetery, with an optional visit to his home across the Meadows in Sciennes. The tour was complemented by a live demonstration of ‘supercritical CO2’* being injected into and stored in a geological CO2 storage site** and discussions around different types of CO2 – fossil and biogenic – and the nuanced role of CCS in climate action.
* water
** sandstone
Black’s experimental glassware display at the National Museum of Scotland.
Panel Discussion
An evening panel session entitled “Carbon Capture and Storage for a Net Zero Future” took place at The Bayes Centre. Chaired by Gillian White (SCCS Programme Manager) and featuring five expert panellists***, the UK’s ambition to store 50 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2035 set the scene. CCS was proposed as a suite of technical solutions to mitigate global warming and social problems related to climate change, that will protect existing and create new jobs and decarbonise the environment, energy and industry.
Societal aspects that challenge the notion of a solely “technical fix” for problems were also highlighted by the panel. The panel addressed questions ranging from how achievable it is to meet the UK’s storage ambition, storage permanency, what are the fundamentals of mineralisation in CCS and Negative Emissions Technologies, before expanding on the theme of “what else needs to happen if technology, itself, is not enough?”. The event was a sell-out with an audience of 75 ensuring a lively audience Q&A session to conclude.
*** Expert panellists: Professor Hannah Chalmers (Personal Chair of Sustainable Energy Systems, Deputy Director of Learning and Teaching, School of Engineering), Dr Stuart Gilfillan (Reader in Geochemistry, School of Geosciences), Dr Mark Cassidy (Research Fellow, School of Social and Political Science) – all UoE; Catherine Witt (Head of Technical, Storegga) and Alicia Newton (Senior Scientific Officer, DRAX Group)
It was a full house for our evening panel session.
Pulling in 400+ participants across the 3 events, SCCS’ interactive approach ensured that visitors of all ages and persuasions were actively engaged and (hopefully) left with a better understanding of how carbon, CO2 and CCS relate to the climate crisis and the positive action that is now much needed. Such high levels of engagement suggest strong public interest in CCS and an open-mindedness to interrogate how it can be part of creating our net zero future.
We look forward to being at ESF 2025!
