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Underground futures: The essential role of the subsurface in a net zero carbon future

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  • Gormally-Sutton, Alexandra M.
  • Napier, Hazel

Abstract

This viewpoint examines the overlooked yet crucial role of the underground in achieving net zero carbon transitions. Drawing on insights from the Underground Futures scoping study, a collaboration between Lancaster University and the British Geological Survey, the viewpoint explores how subsurface spaces, once associated with extraction, are now central to energy storage, carbon sequestration, and geothermal heat generation, and the governance and regulatory challenges this presents. Through interviews and focus groups with UK stakeholders, it identifies governance, limited data, and a lack of integrated planning as major barriers to sustainable underground use. The viewpoint bridges geoscience, spatial planning, and concepts from political geology to ultimately suggest that the underground is a dynamic and active component of planetary change, that is both shaping and being shaped by human efforts toward a sustainable net zero future.

Suggested Citation

  • Gormally-Sutton, Alexandra M. & Napier, Hazel, 2026. "Underground futures: The essential role of the subsurface in a net zero carbon future," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:161:y:2026:i:c:s0264837725004053
    DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2025.107871
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Volchko, Yevheniya & Norrman, Jenny & Ericsson, Lars O. & Nilsson, Kristina L. & Markstedt, Anders & Öberg, Maria & Mossmark, Fredrik & Bobylev, Nikolai & Tengborg, Per, 2020. "Subsurface planning: Towards a common understanding of the subsurface as a multifunctional resource," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    2. Uchendu Eugene Chigbu, 2023. "Connecting land tenure to land restoration," Development in Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(7), pages 762-770, October.
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