BHP’s view is that steel production will still be mostly fuelled by coal by 2050 - albeit less than it is today.
But Forrest is sanguine that by 2050 coal will be history,replaced by clean fuel -most likely hydrogen - as the key energy source for steel making. It’s a massive prediction - and the result could go either way.
Forrest’s Fortescue Metals has its fair share of fanboys from the ever swelling numbers in the environmental movement. That said,BHP looks likely to receive general,albeit conditional,support for its current emissions reduction trajectory as it heads to its annual meeting this month.
But Forrest’s proclamations have set Fortescue wildly apart from the pack on environmental issues. The billionaire has in recent years morphed into something of an environmental/climate evangelist - labelling his competitor’s aspirations on emissions as greenwashing and their promises on the environment as sugar hits with no real substance.
On Tuesday,Fortescue formally set out its own ambitious emissions pledges,and these involve an extreme makeover of the steel industry. Ditching coal from the steel manufacturing process is as radical as removing the internal combustion engine from cars.
Unlike Rio and BHP,who have set off on a more conventional path to reduce their emissions,Forrest wants to essentially blow up the traditional model of using coal to fire steel making furnaces.