Andrew Forrest unveils new version of ‘real zero’ targets and timetable
Iron ore billionaire Andrew Fortescue has unveiled a new climate transition plan for Fortescue as the company’s carbon emissions continue to grow.
Andrew Forrest-led Fortescue has quietly slashed references to hydrogen in its latest plan to eliminate carbon emissions from the company’s iron ore mining operations after a string of setbacks with its green energy ambitions.
Fortescue founder and executive chairman Dr Forrest unveiled the third iteration of the company’s climate transition plan at the opening of the Global Renewables Summit in New York headlined by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
The latest plan commits Fortescue to achieving what it calls “real zero” in mining by 2030-31. The company has previously referred to achieving the target “by 2030” and published graphs and other material showing a 2029-30 goal.
Fortescue’s latest plan says it hopes to have solar, wind and battery energy storage systems commissioned, transmission and other electrical infrastructure in place, and its trucking and other heavy mobile fleet transitioned to zero emissions by 2030-31.
It represents a subtle change from the company’s previous transition plan, published a year ago, which said Fortescue would have a fully integrated, renewable energy grid in place and have decarbonised its mining operations in Western Australia sometime between 2029 and 2030.
The latest plan also reveals Fortescue is now leaning towards using an electric cable system to power some machinery rather than the much-hyped fast-charging battery packs.
The September 2024 plan made 101 mentions of hydrogen whereas the latest version makes 43 references after 12 months in which Fortescue walked away from a number of heavily promoted projects and cut jobs in the sector.
Fortescue’s direct carbon emissions from mining increased to 2.64 million tonnes in 2024-25, up almost 300,000 tonnes on the previous 12 months, and it remains one of Australia’s biggest emitters.
The company blamed that rise on increased gas consumption to meet growing power demand from its troubled Iron Bridge magnetite operations, which it still sees as crucial to its ambitions to produce so-called “green iron” referenced in the latest climate transition plan.
Other big players in the iron ore industry remain unconvinced Fortescue can replace diesel-fuelled trucks and other heavy machinery with battery electric versions by the end of the decade amid what appears to be slow progress and setbacks with its plans.
The Australian revealed this month that Fortescue rising star Ellie Coates had been forced to step aside as chief executive of Fortescue Zero for family medical reasons in the latest blow to the business arm supposed to be developing the technology needed to electrify the heavy machinery.
Ms Coates became the third leader in two years to depart Fortescue Zero, the UK-based business once known as Williams Advanced Engineering that was part of the Williams Formula One racing team when it was acquired by Fortescue for $US222m ($336m) in 2022.
Her unforeseen departure coincided with an unrelated decision by Fortescue to abandon a $US210m plan to make electric vehicle batteries, fast chargers and electrolysers in Detroit, Michigan.
Fortescue is under pressure to repay more than $100m in federal and Queensland state government funding it received towards building a green hydrogen gigafactory at Gladstone.
The project was dumped by the iron ore heavyweight in July as part of a major winding back of the company’s hydrogen ambitions.
Dr Forrest released the updated climate transition plan to coincide with his appearance at a Climate Week NYC event that also involved COP30 president André Corrêa do Lago and federal Energy Minister Chris Bowen.
Fortescue, which helped organise the event alongside Climate Group, said heads of state, government leaders, business executives and financiers discussed ways to accelerate the deployment of zero-emissions technologies and the renewable energy transition.
The company said the latest climate transition plan “refines Fortescue’s path to its Real Zero Target and demonstrates the progress Fortescue has made since the launch of Real Zero in 2022”.
Dr Forrest hailed the revised plan as a “demonstration of decarbonisation in action” and urged participants at the roundtable to match Fortescue’s ambition.
“Our climate transition plan is more than a strategy – it’s a road map for how industry can decarbonise at scale,” Dr Forrest said.
“We’ve demonstrated that green energy isn’t just achievable but is profitable, reliable, and transformative. Now, it’s time for all of us to match that ambition and accelerate the global energy transition.”
For the second consecutive year, Fortescue’s plan was reviewed by professor Benjamin Caldecott, director of the University of Oxford Sustainable Finance Group.
The plan is the third of its kind released by Fortescue since 2021-22, when it acquired Williams Advanced Engineering, announced an infinity train project and a partnership with Germany’s Liebherr to make battery electric haul trucks.
Those moves were followed by a commitment to spend $US6.2bn on decarbonising the iron ore operation without the use of carbon offsets.
The latest plan sheds more light on the technology Fortescue intends to use, including an electric cable system for power excavators and drills.
The plan states electrical infrastructure will be installed at the first mine site in 2025-26 and that Fortescue will start “fast charging” some heavy mobile machinery.
According to the plan, the first battery electric haul truck will be commissioned in the next 12 months and Fortescue will also start “scaling cabled electric excavators across all hematite mining operations”. Fortescue plans to commission its first two battery energy storage systems with 370MWh in total.
The company aims to have electrical infrastructure installed at three of its mines by 2027-28, three solar farms up and running, and to have commissioned the first stage of a wind farm. It also wants to have started rolling out more battery electric heavy mobile equipment, including trucks, graders and water carts.
Dino Otranto, Fortescue chief executive of metals and operations, said: “A target without a plan is just rhetoric.”
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