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Politico (31 March 2026)

Marianne GROS, Leonie CATER, Luke BARRATT and Constanza GAMBARINI 

Italian state-owned oil giant Eni presents its Kenyan biofuel project as a model for sustainable air travel. Many small farmers say it’s failed them.

Four years ago, Italy’s biggest oil company started approaching Kenyan farmers with an intriguing pitch: Plant castor seeds on your land, and we’ll promise to buy the crop and turn it into climate-friendly jet fuel.

Eni, which is part-owned by the Italian government and makes most of its money selling planet-warming fossil fuels, boasted that the Kenyan initiative would provide customers “with fully decarbonized products” while creating “models of sustainable agriculture by promoting social development.”

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