Hundreds of climate activists and local residents demonstrated outside Kalundborg Refinery on Monday, August 17, rejecting the plant’s plans for carbon capture and storage.
The demonstration was held at the gates of Denmark’s largest oil refinery, in Kalundborg in western Zealand. According to Arbejderen, the protesters’ central message was that CO2 storage is not climate action. They argued that the technology must not be used to justify continued fossil fuel production.
The organizers, Den Grønne Ungdomsbevægelse, said in a press release distributed by Ritzau that participants came from Denmark and other European countries. Avisen.dk reported on the same day that the action was part of the Bryd Kæden campaign, which targets large industrial sites.
Organizers listed five demands. They include a ban on new oil licences on Danish territory, an urgent cut in fossil emissions and a rapid phase-out of the fossil sector, including at the Kalundborg refinery. They also called for a job guarantee for refinery workers and other employees affected by a phase-out.
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Per the same press release, protesters said carbon capture and storage should be a last-resort technology. They argued it must not become an excuse to maintain emissions that could be cut at source. A further demand was that CO2 must not be stored under land areas or protected marine areas.
Speakers included Elise Sydendal, a member of the Folketing for Alternativet, author Carsten Jensen and local residents. Klimamonitor also named Sydendal as a key speaker at the event organized by Den Grønne Ungdomsbevægelse. The local group Miljøforeningen Havnsø-Føllenslev took part as well.
What the refinery plans
The local association’s concern centers on plans to store captured CO2 underground at Havnsø in northwest Zealand. In its “Refinery of the Future” strategy from January 2025, Kalundborg Refinery stated that, with the right framework conditions, it is realistically possible to capture and store 200,000 tonnes of CO2 annually by 2030. That corresponds to roughly one third of the refinery’s emissions, according to the company.
Organizers described the demonstration as the first action aimed directly at the refinery itself, although local opposition to nearby CO2 storage had been building for more than a year. The campaign had previously held an action at Cheminova before moving on to Kalundborg.
A 2025 update from the Danish Underground Consortium noted that CO2 Storage Kalundborg had applied for permits to enter the next phase of investigating permanent underground storage. As stated in that June 2025 update, construction could follow from 2026 if approvals are granted, and a temporary drilling site had been agreed with a local landowner.
