Twiggy’s Fortescue Future Industries included in Joe Biden’s clean tech First Movers Coalition
The US President includes Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Future Industries in elite new coalition to help commercialise clean technologies.
US President Joe Biden has included Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Future Industries in a new elite coalition as one of 25 global companies to help commercialise clean technologies across heavy industry sectors.
Mr Biden told the COP26 summit in Glasgow on Tuesday that the US government and World Economic Forum are launching the “First Movers Coalition” starting with more than two dozen of the world’s largest and most innovative companies.
Mr Biden said the coalition represents eight major sectors that comprise 30% of global emissions.
“These companies will be critical partners in pushing for viable alternatives to decarbonise these industrial sectors and more,” Mr Biden said.
Companies in the coalition include Apple, Boston Consulting Group, AP Møller – Mærsk, Vattenfall, Dalmia Cement, Volvo Group, Fortescue and Yara International. The full list will be announced tomorrow.
Immediately after Mr Biden’s announcement, the chief executive of FFI Julie Shuttleworth spoke at the World Leaders summit event “Accelerating Clean Technology, Innovation and Deployment”, telling an audience which included Prince William and Bill Gates and political leaders that green hydrogen was scaleable and affordable by the end of the decade.
“We are absolutely confident (to make such a statement) because we are already doing it,’’ she said, announcing that the company is looking to replace the use of one billion litres of diesel a year using renewable electricity, green ammonia and green hydrogen by 2030.
She said Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) has built the first mining truck, seven metres high and weighing 400 tonnes to be powered by green energy and that all of the company’s fleet would be converted to green energy by the end of the decade. She also revealed that the company had converted a long train to run on 70 per cent green ammonia, and the research was showing it would soon run on 90 per cent green ammonia.
“Our trains are three kilometres long, we have the fastest heavy haul railway in the world, but its powered by diesel,’’ she said, adding “so, we’ve converted a train to run on green ammonia. We’re doing the same with ship engines – to run our ships on green ammonia.
Why? Because our ships are massive – 330 meters long and burn the dirtiest fuel on the planet – marine fuel. We have established that mining trucks can run on green hydrogen, that our trains and ships can run on green ammonia.”
Ms Shuttleworth issued a challenge to other big industries.
“We (the parent company Fortescue Metals Group) are a big carbon emitter and we are doing something about it, we will decarbonise our operations by 2030,’’she said.
“So, if we can do this, what is stopping every other heavy, hard to abate industry from doing the same? Nothing. Just the will to do it.”
Ms Shuttleworth said Fortescue had “working projects” in over 20 countries to generate “huge” amounts of hydrogen. and by 2030 the company will grow to 15m tonnes of green hydrogen a year, not dirty stuff from fossil fuels, and FFI’s green hydrogen production is anticipated to accelerate to 50 million tonnes per year in the 2040s.
Ends
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