Business lacking ‘the will’ to urgently cut emissions: Fortescue
Fortescue Energy chief executive Mark Hutchinson has challenged companies to bring forward their net zero emissions targets and says those with 2040 or 2050 horizons are lazy and not acting urgently enough to rein in climate change.
“If a company has a 2040, 2050 target, they’re saying it’s not my problem,” Mr Hutchinson told The Australian Financial Review Energy & Climate Summit.
“It comes down to ‘do they have the will to really knuckle down and really get at this’, and I don’t think business has at the moment. I think we’ve got a long way to go.”
Fortescue Energy CEO Mark Hutchison [second from left] has warned that businesses aren’t willing to “knuckle down” to hit net zero targets. Dion Georgopoulos
The Andrew Forrest-controlled Fortescue Metals, the iron ore-fuelled parent company of Mr Hutchinson’s unit that is pursuing new energy projects such as in hydrogen and ammonia, has committed to hitting net zero by 2030.
“If we can do it as a mining company why can’t you,” he said.
A slowdown in the construction of transmission projects needed to connect solar and wind farms to the grid, and rising costs associated with building new capacity, have become key risks to Australia’s ability to hit emissions-reduction commitments and maintain energy supply as the nation’s coal-fired power stations are retired.
Former Woodside Energy chief executive Peter Coleman, who is now chairman of green hydrogen, critical minerals and offshore wind ventures company Allkem, said getting energy transition back on track would rely in-part on ensuring companies had social licence to pursue new projects that faced community opposition.
“We’re now moving into a highly contested phase of our development as humanity, where in fact we’re going
Read more on afr.com
