Japanese and South Korean investors are at the heart of six shortlisted projects vying for $2 billion of funding on offer under the Albanese government’s Hydrogen Headstart program, but the loudest advocate of the fuel, Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Metals Group, has missed out.

The shortlist underscores the critical role that Australia’s traditional fossil fuel commodity customers in North Asia will have in underpinning the country’s ambitions in clean energy exports.