Andrew Twiggy Forrest takes on fossil fuels in fight over ‘lethal humidity’

Andrew Forrest has had multiple meetings with officials from the administrations of US President Joe Biden, China President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the issue.

Businessman Andrew Forrest attends a panel discussion at COP28 Climate Conference in Dubai.

Mining and green hydrogen magnate Andrew Forrest has spent six months warning the world’s leaders that northern Australia, Indonesia and other countries in tropical and sub-tropical regions are most at risk of the impacts of high humidity.

Dr Forrest has had multiple meetings with officials from the administrations of US president Joe Biden, China president Xi Jinping and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi for most of the year to get the relatively unknown issue of lethal humidity high on their priorities.

“The response from the three countries has been strong but it has been down below the public radar, until now,’’ Dr Forrest told The Australian.

He said he was “deeply concerned” that the momentum from COP28 will “wane” and said he wanted to put the scientific facts for people to see for themselves the climate trend “which is not reversible until we reverse, replace and phase out the fossil fuels”.

Forrest speaks during a panel discussion at COP28.

In the first public manifestation of these lethal humidity discussions with the three countries, it was agreed Dr Forrest would release an open letter on Friday, having given the three countries six months to challenge and test the scientific evidence.

“The countries have had plenty of time to digest and absorb and discuss the science, and to continue the science,’’ he said.

The letter is signed by three pages of scientific experts from a range of global institutes, including from the University of NSW, and Sydney University.

Dr Forrest, who has had the ear of international politicians over the past five years through his ambitious green hydrogen missive, has called for the COP28 leaders to implement a “Power Positive Plan” to counter the rising humidity levels of the planet.

He said that scientific consensus is that the rising humidity and heat poses a serious and growing threat to humanity.

“As temperatures increase, so does the potential for episodes of high temperature and high

humidity beyond what humans and many mammals – including livestock, an important source

of protein globally – can endure for more than a few hours,’’ Dr Forrest wrote.

“These impacts will not be equitable. Society’s most vulnerable, such as the elderly, young

children and the poor, will suffer the most. At population scale, this is called Lethal Humidity

and its impacts will be felt globally, especially in tropical and subtropical regions.”

Dr Forrest said it wasn’t good enough for business leaders to claim ignorance and in recent days has taken out full page advertisements in major newspapers across the world to warn of the humidity dangers.

He said company directors and chief executives were now on notice that to ignore the science about lethal humidity would be wilful ignorance.