Iron ore billionaire and green energy evangelist Andrew Forrest has made another major intervention into the global energy debate, insisting that there is no reason that the world cannot stop burning fossil fuels by 2040, even if detractors think the idea is “woke.”
Forrest has already set a target of “real zero” emissions at his company’s iron ore operations for 2030, by which time he says it will not be burning any fossil fuels for mining, processing or land transport.
Forrest is a major critic of “net zero” strategies allow carbon offsets or carbon capture and storage. Real zero, he says, involves the elimination of fossil fuels, and he wants the world to follow – and achieve it a decade earlier than current “net zero” targets.
“If Fortescue can achieve real zero by 2030, there is no reason the rest of the world can’t follow by 2040,” Dr Forrest said in a statement marking his company endorsement of the so-called “Fossil Fuel Treaty” on the sidelines of the Davos World Economic Forum late last week.
“The economics make sense and the technological solutions exist to phase out fossil fuels,” Forrest said.
“While fossil fuel companies bury their heads in the sand as while hellish wildfires cause unimaginable damage to Los Angeles, Fortescue and the growing bloc of countries seeking to negotiate a Fossil Fuel Treaty understand the need for real action to combat climate change.”
Forrest remains a fierce critic of the fossil fuel industry and policies that support it. His comments come at a time that the new Trump administration is trying to roll back support for renewables and storage and go all in on fossil fuels, a policy and ideological position that the federal Coalition in Australia seems determined to follow.
“I know that doesn’t go well with the current parlance coming out of Washington, DC, but I don’t care,” Forrest said in an interview on Bloomberg TV late last week.
“You can call it woke, you can call it ESG, I don’t care what it gets called. What’s unrealistic for the planet is that we keep on burning fossil fuels. We kind of pretend the climate doesn’t exist.”
Forrest also pointed out that the savings are important. “We’re going to drop a billion litres of diesel a year out of our supply chains this decade, and we’re going to make money from that. So I wouldn’t call it unrealistic.”
Fortescue says a study involving the University of Oxford found real zero for the power and transport sectors could drive annual savings of more than $US500 billion by 2050.
He was challenged about his company’s recent admission that his ambitious target of producing 15 million tonnes of green hydrogen a year by 2030 won’t be achieved in that timeframe.
However, Forrest hinted at a potential breakthrough in hydrogen technology, although he declined to provide specifics.
“There is a new form of hydrogen, which will come onto the marketplace, which will be a lot cheaper,” he told Bloomberg. “We’re not yet in a position where I want to talk about it publicly.”
The Fossil Fuel Treaty initiative seeks to push countries and corporates along the same path of “real zero”, rather than the net zero targets that are being used as an excuse to delay action for another decade or so.
To date, is has attracted the support of only small and vulnerable countries such as Colombia, Timor Leste, Pakistan, and a coalition of small island nations from the Caribbean and the Pacific.
But it has the backing of the World Health Organisation, the European Parliament, 3,000 scientists, 101 Nobel Laureates, 123 cities and subnational governments including the State of California, and more than 3,500 civil society organizations from 123 countries.
The Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative’s founder and chair, Dr Tzeporah Berman, noted that Fortescue is one of the only major industrial companies in the world committed to reaching climate targets through absolute reductions in fossil fuel use instead of “questionable” offsets.
“This landmark decision not only underscores Fortescue’s commitment to its ambitious Real Zero 2030 target, but also sets a powerful precedent for other companies to follow,” she said in a statement.
“It signals to the market that the transition to a fossil fuel-free future is not only necessary; it is achievable and economically viable.”
The Fossil Fuel Treaty proposal is similar to Fortescue’s Real Zero ambition, supporting a fast and fair fossil fuel phase out and a 100 per cent reduction in emissions while calling for investment to move away from “net” zero technologies and into renewable technologies aimed at achieving Real Zero.
See also: “We’re going to miss the bus” if we wait for nuclear, says new chief scientist
And: “We need renewables and storage now” to cut costs and grow economy, says US energy giant
