EVALUATION OF RISK PERCEPTION AND PUBLIC ACCEPTANCE OF CO_2 UNDERGROUND STORAGE BY FACTOR ANALYSIS

摘要

CO_2 underground storage will be one of the cost-effective options for the global warming mitigation, and its technology development is underway widely in the world. The public acceptance, however, is another important issue for this technology to be utilized in practice. For the evaluation of the risk perception and the public acceptance, a questionnaire survey was conducted based on SD (Semantic Differential) method; the cognitive map of risk perception of 20 risk-associated items, which include not only CO_2 underground storage, but also other major global warming mitigation options and everyday life activities, etc., was constructed by a factor analysis on 20 questions. The respondents were 138 university students. The map consists of two-factor axes, that is, "Dread Risk" and "Unknown Risk." In constructing the map, "third axis" of public acceptance was added to reveal how differences in the risk perception affected the public acceptance. According to the map, "Dread Risk" and "Unknown Risk" perceptions of CO_2 underground storage were smaller and larger, respectively, than those of nuclear power generation.