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Elnur, Rawie Ibrahim

University of British Columbia

This thesis explores two emerging technologies in the bioenergy space: Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) and Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). BECCS involves converting biomass into energy while capturing and permanently storing carbon dioxide emissions, positioning it as a negative emissions technology essential for meeting the Paris Climate Agreement's targets. SAF, derived from biomass like agricultural and forestry residues, helps reduce emissions from aviation, addressing the sector's significant contribution to global carbon emissions. Public perception, heavily influenced by social media discourse, plays a pivotal role in shaping policy support and legitimizing these technologies. Conclusions on the sustainability of bioenergy as a renewable resource depend heavily on contextual temporal-scale and spatial-scale factors, often overlooked in social media discussions. Tweets frequently make blanket statements on carbon neutrality and sustainability without sufficient context, revealing biases in online discourse. Conversely, researchers and industry stakeholders often underplay or negate the social and environmental consequences of the increasing demand for biofuel production, which threaten biodiversity and the livelihoods of rural and marginalized communities worldwide. The research objectives are to explore how these technologies are framed, compare levels of optimism and skepticism across platforms, and outline differences in discourse between BECCS and SAF despite their reliance on similar feedstocks. An automated content analysis of historical Twitter posts (n=11,314) and peer-reviewed academic articles (n=140) provides insights into these dynamics. The findings and research aim to provide insights into how scientific communication is disseminated from academia to social media, uncovering underreported knowledge gaps amidst the increasing demand for biofuel production, and to assess variations in optimism and skepticism across different technologies and media.

Text

2024-08-23

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/89016

Forestry

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/