Article by Editorial, courtesy of The Australian.
15.10.2025
Globetrotting billionaire iron ore miner Andrew Forrest boasts that for more than 20 years, his company, Fortescue, has “tested the limits and lived in the uncomfortable”. That is certainly true for an ever-expanding list of workers who were hired to deliver on Dr Forrest’s decarbonisation ambitions and now find themselves out of a job.
The latest group will be the hundreds of workers to be sacked in Britain and Australia as Fortescue walks away from bold ambitions to become a major player in the manufacture of green energy machinery equipment.
Fortescue was planning to build the trucks and diggers for its own “real zero” emissions journey in-house using the Fortescue Zero company it bought from the Williams Formula One team and rebadged as part of a $1bn investment. Fortescue will be a big customer for zero-emissions mining equipment but has learnt the lesson that is concentrating the minds of policymakers and security analysts around the world.
That lesson is the fact developed nations cannot compete with China on manufacturing. So zero-emissions trucks will be built in China, most likely using coal-fired power, and the sacked Fortescue workers will join those who were made redundant when Dr Forrest recalibrated his hydrogen energy ambitions in the face of technological and economic reality. Shareholders can celebrate the fact their company is prepared to cut its losses when it comes to delivering its “real zero” road map.
This is something government clearly has yet to master. The Australian Energy Market Commission says government subsidies will be needed for renewable energy projects for at least another decade. Even this has not been enough to entice German energy giant RWE to persevere with its proposed Kent offshore wind project in Victoria, despite offshore wind being the centrepiece of the state’s plan to replace ageing coal-fired generation. The federal government-owned Snowy 2.0 hydro-electric project is the poster child for government inefficiency.
Having sent his truck orders to China, Dr Forrest is powering ahead with his dream of a domestic green steel industry, despite the doubts from other major iron ore producers about the economics and feasibility of the idea. To make it work, the Superpower Institute, the board of which includes economist Ross Garnaut, public policy expert Rod Sims and Climate 200’s Simon Holmes a Court, says green steel will require production tax credits of $170 a tonne, plus grants covering 30 per cent of investment costs as well as other taxpayer support, something it favours.
To add absurdity to calamity, Energy Minister Chris Bowen is travelling to China and India to ask them to bankroll Australia’s renewables rollout as a top government official warns that Australia’s 2035 emissions reduction target will have little impact on global warming if other nations do not pull their weight. It’s all about testing the limits of what promises to be an increasingly uncomfortable life for long-suffering taxpayers.