Australian billionaire Forrest wants leaders to target zero carbon by 2035

AUSTRALIA’S richest person, Andrew Forrest, called for government and business leaders to commit to stop burning fossil fuels by 2035.

“We have all the technology, it is all there,” Forrest, founder of iron ore giant Fortescue Metals Group and a clean energy advocate, said on Wednesday (Nov 8) at the Bloomberg New Economy Forum in Singapore. “The resource we are short of is character of leaders.”

Getting new industries like green hydrogen started requires assistance from the government, while business leaders must take risks, he said.

Forrest previously said he wants to produce 15 million tons globally of green hydrogen using renewable power by 2030.

In a separate interview with Bloomberg TV on Wednesday, he said Fortescue’s board would meet over the next two weeks to discuss five potential hydrogen or ammonia projects. The company has said it would decide on the projects – from the US to Kenya and Norway – by the end of this year. BLOOMBERG