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Andrew Forrest backs calls by Greens for ban on new gas projects

Mark Ludlow
Mark LudlowQueensland bureau chief
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Mining billionaire Andrew Forrest has backed the push by the Greens to ban new coal or gas projects to ensure Australia is on the right path to net zero emissions by 2050.

The iron ore magnate turned renewables champion said gas should only be used to provide back-up to renewable energy until “green” hydrogen was available on a large scale.

Fortescue Metals Group chairman Andrew Forrest said Australia didn’t need new gas projects. Michael Quelch

The latest warnings from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change “excoriated” governments and the private sector for not doing enough to tackle global warming, Dr Forrest added.

The Albanese government is locked in negotiations with the Greens over changes to the safeguard mechanism covering 215 of Australia’s largest polluters.

Greens Leader Adam Bandt has called for a ban on new coal and gas projects but has backed away from making it one of the conditions of the party’s support for the legislation.

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Dr Forrest, whose company Fortescue Metals Group is one of Australia’s biggest carbon emitters, said there was no need for new gas projects in Australia, saying 85 per cent to 90 per cent of the nation’s energy needs should be from renewables.

“We have massive gas already. We’re over-weaponised on existing projects for firming power,” Dr Forrest told The Australian Financial Review from Hong Kong after delivering a speech to a Credit Suisse Asian investment conference.

“Like the Greens or not – and they may have different reasons – but they are on the right path that Australia full go fully green for its baseload power. And then use existing projects which is more than we need to provide firming power. We don’t need any new projects.”

Dr Forrest’s private company Squadron Energy is planning a $250 million gas import terminal at Port Kembla with the option for a gas/hydrogen plant.

The Fortescue boss said the latest IPCC report released this week “excoriated” governments and the private sector for not doing enough to tackle global warming.

“It’s a bigger crime ignoring the IPCC than going along with its findings publicly but not doing anything about it. That’s the most dangerous thing,” he said.

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Dr Forrest said there were massive opportunities for the investment sector to back renewable projects in both the developed and developing worlds.

He said Fortescue Future Industries – which has championed green hydrogen around the world – was on track to reach a final investment decision on five projects by the end of this year, including in Kenya and other African nations.

Dr Forrest – who is attempting to decarbonise his own company’s iron ore operations – also took aim at the fossil fuel industry for backing carbon capture and storage technologies saying they were “this decade’s clean coal”.

Proponents of CCS technologies this week said they were vindicated by the IPCC’s latest report which backed them as a feasible option to help limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.

Dr Forrest said carbon capture technologies was “clutching at straws”. Australian Financial Review

Low Emissions Technology Australia (formerly Coal21) chief executive Mark McCallum said carbon storage was one of the few technologies to be able to decarbonise hard-to-abate industries.

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“Once again we are seeing internationally recognised evidence by specialist climate change bodies like the IPCC concur that international climate change targets cannot be achieved without CCS,” he said.

“CCS can be used to remove emissions from steel, cement and fertiliser and other products we use and rely on every day, and it can also be used to produce clean hydrogen — a zero-emission transport fuel that can also help power industry.

But Dr Forrest said CCS was a failed technology that the fossil fuel industry was backing as the world moved to renewable energy.

“CCS is the story that relies on the next sucker coming along. Statistically, it fails 19 out of 20 times. It is this decade’s clean coal technology,” he said.

Dr Forrest said the IPCC had backed CCS because “in the short term, we need anything”.

“Anything is better than burning fossil fuels. They are clutching at straws because we have seven years or less to halve emissions,” he said.

Dr Forrest said he was confident green hydrogen would become commercially viable at scale by the end of the decade.

“It is scaling super fast. We need 5 million tonnes a year by 2030. We need gas until we switch to green hydrogen which should be firming power for Australia and other countries,” he said.

“It has to be for firming, not the baseload. Countries need to have the pluck to go fully renewable for all their baseload.”

Mark Ludlow writes on politics, energy and infrastructure based in Brisbane. Connect with Mark on Twitter. Email Mark at mludlow@afr.com

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