Deep beneath the choppy waves of the North Sea, an old oil platform is being repurposed for a startling new mission: to inject Europe’s carbon dioxide pollution back into the earth. This reversal of the fossil fuel process marks a pivotal moment in the climate fight, offering a potential blueprint for a world grappling with industrial emissions.

For Kenya, this is more than a distant headline. As our own manufacturing and cement sectors grow, so does their carbon footprint. The technology now being proven 170 kilometres off the Danish coast, known as Project Greensand, could represent one of the future pathways for reconciling Kenya’s economic ambitions with its climate commitments under the Paris Agreement.

Turning Back the Clock on Emissions

Led by the chemicals giant INEOS and a consortium of partners, Project Greensand has reached its final investment decision, paving the way for over $150 million (approx. KES 20.7 billion) in investments. The plan is to use the depleted Nini West oilfield as a permanent storage site for captured CO2, burying it 1,800 metres below the seabed.

“It’s a very good opportunity to reverse the process: instead of extracting oil, we can now inject CO2 into the ground,” Mads Gade, an INEOS executive, told AFP. The project is set to begin operations by early 2026, initially storing up to 400,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, with ambitions to scale up to 8 million tonnes annually by 2030.

The View from Nairobi

The challenge Project Greensand aims to solve is one Kenya is increasingly familiar with. Our industrial sector was responsible for 18% of the nation's CO2 emissions in 2021, a figure set to rise with economic growth. The cement industry is a primary concern, accounting for a staggering 97% of all industrial emissions in 2022 as its reliance on coal grows.

Recognizing this, Kenya is actively building a framework to manage its carbon future. The Climate Change Act was amended in 2023 to regulate carbon markets, and a National Carbon Registry is being established to track credits and cuts. This technology is not just theoretical here; a partnership between RepAir and Cella is already launching a carbon capture and storage project in the Kenyan Rift Valley, leveraging our geothermal power.

A High-Stakes Gamble?

While endorsed by bodies like the International Energy Agency (IEA) for hard-to-decarbonise sectors, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is no silver bullet. The IEA has noted that the technology’s story is one of “unmet expectations,” with many projects failing to launch due to complexity and cost.

The success of projects like Greensand depends heavily on government support, a major consideration for any developing nation. The Danish government and the EU have poured millions of Euros in grants to make the project viable. This raises a critical question: Can the high price of burying carbon ever be truly affordable for a country like Kenya, or will other solutions provide a more direct path to a green economy?

As the first tonnes of CO2 are prepared for their journey to a sub-sea tomb, the world, including Kenya, will be watching. The lessons learned from this audacious European experiment could well shape the future of our industries and our climate resilience for decades to come.