The Australian mining magnate and climate campaigner lashes out at oil and gas supremos he says are "selfish beyond belief".
  • Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest is attending the COP28 climate conference in the United Arab Emirates.
  • He says energy bosses should have their heads “put up on spikes” for not committing to phase out fossil fuels.
  • It comes as some companies, including the national oil company of the UAE, defy calls for a wind-down of fossil fuel use.

Quote with context:

And he took particular aim at the oil and gas bosses who were dismissing the calls, describing them as “selfish beyond belief”.

He said their actions were jeopardising the lives of millions of people in overwhelmingly poor countries who were at risk of “lethal humidity”, or an inability to cool themselves down. “If you can’t cool yourself you’re actually an oven burning around 100 watts all the time,” Dr Forrest said.

"If you can [sic] get rid of that heat energy, you cook.

"And when these deaths occur — and they’re occurring now, but when they occur at much larger-scale — I want these so-called people who are very smart to be held to account.

“It’s their heads which should be put up on spikes because they wilfully ignored and they didn’t care.”

  • NathA
    2·
    1 year ago

    I don’t understand the point you are making. He’s trialing the concept of using renewable energy to generate hydrogen that can later be used. What about this is a scam, exactly? That the process isn’t profitable at the moment? I think that’s the whole point, he is going to try and make the process more profitable and well, he can afford to run it at a loss for a while.

    He’s spending $3 Billion on this trial, great if he has that to experiment with. If it pans out for him, it might become a profitable venture. If it doesn’t pan out, well at least he’s trying to do something worthwhile with his money.

    • sqgl@beehaw.org
      1·
      1 year ago

      It looks like a cynical ploy to greenwash gas. Simple.

      well at least he’s trying to do something worthwhile with his money.

      I wouldn’t call accelerating the burning of gas “worthwhile”.

      • NathA
        2·
        1 year ago

        And what exactly is wrong with burning Hydrogen?

        I can understand if your concerns are to do with storing and transporting hydrogen. But what’s your problem with burning it?

        • sqgl@beehaw.org
          1·
          1 year ago

          G A S

          Burning gas to produce the hydrogen.

          I don’t know how to make it any clearer.

          • NathA
            2·
            1 year ago

            You don’t burn gas to produce hydrogen. You generate power with wind/solar, then run that power as an electrical current through water to separate out the oxygen and hydrogen atoms. No gas is burned.

            This is not new technology: every nuclear submarine has been doing this to make oxygen since forever (not with renewable energy, of course).

            • Wiggles
              2·
              1 year ago

              You can use gas and other fossil fuels to produce hydrogen, but you can obviously use renewables too, amongst other methods. https://www.csiro.au/en/news/all/articles/2021/may/green-blue-brown-hydrogen-explained

              There has been a decent greenwashing campaign to try to disguise that a lot of hydrogen in the hydrogen mix is produced using fossil fuels. This is to try and enable greater use of hydrogen technologies over other solutions, eg EVs vs hydrogen cars, and keep money flowing to the fossil fuel barons. Unfortunately, we do need to be careful when we hear the blanket phrase ‘hydrogen’, rather than ‘green hydrogen’ specifically.

              https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesmorris/2021/07/31/is-hydrogen-just-oil-and-gas-greenwashed/?sh=203dcf3fca04

              This article is from 2021 but I imagine the percentage of grey hydrogen in the hydrogen production mix is still up towards what is stated in the below quote. The context for the quote is in the lead up to the Tokyo Olympics, Tokyo was using hydrogen buses.

              Currently, around 95% of hydrogen production is what is called “grey”, including that being used at the Tokyo Olympics. It is made by reacting natural gas with high-temperature steam. This is the cheapest way to manufacture hydrogen but produces loads of CO2. In fact, it has been calculated that producing 1kg of hydrogen by this method will generate 9.3kg of CO2, which is actually more than the 9.1kg of CO2 produced by burning a gallon of gasoline, usually considered to have a similar energy value.

            • sqgl@beehaw.org
              1·
              1 year ago

              I keep demonstrating that there is no wind or solar to use in WA. That then leaves only fossil fuel sources like G A S.

              G A S

              Are you just trolling?

              That is the greenwash you have either been sucked into or are trying to gaslight us with.

              Twiggy has shown no intention of using renewables. The whole point for him is to use the stranded assets of the COVID gas led recovery (another scam).

              • NathA
                1·
                1 year ago

                When has anything ever been about WA? The very link you posted said he was doing his green hydrogen experiment in QLD.

                I don’t see any connection in this new link you’ve spewed up. It appears to be about a mothballed gas pipeline. You think it’s a bad thing if he finds a use for this pipeline? Would you prefer that he build another pipeline? This pipeline appears to be in NSW, I don’t get its relevance.

          • NathA
            2·
            1 year ago

            This has nothing to do with burning hydrogen. If you are just throwing it out there as another “Twiggy bad” thing, ok. I’m not really defending the guy.

            You see a rich guy doing something good with his money and just shit all over him as “greenwashing” and “spin” for PR points. You may even be right. I don’t know.
            I see a rich guy doing something good with his money and want to encourage that behavoiur. More of this, please. A lot more. Spend money on pipedream green projects - maybe you’ll get them streamlined enough to be sustainable! It sure beats spending billions on more iron ore mines. If every Billionaire started throwing their money at green projects, it can only be good for the planet.