Carbon capture tech a 'complete
falsehood', says Fortescue Metals chairman
PARIS, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Carbon capture
is not a solution for the energy transition and political leaders
need to provide real, non-greenwashed, commitments to encourage
investment, Andrew Forrest, executive chairman of Fortescue Metals,
said on Tuesday.
Speaking at the 50th anniversary meeting of the
International Energy Agency, Australian billionaire Forrest said the
investment community needs a level-playing field and honest answers
from political leaders on phasing out fossil fuels in order to
invest.
"There's a simple question from business
leaders...when do we stop burning fossil fuels?" Forrest said at the
Paris conference.
"If you want to drive capital...we must have
clear and obvious disincentives for what is doing harm and clear
incentives for what is doing good."
Countries including the U.S. have rolled out
public subsidies for
carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects as part of their
incentives to push the green energy transition.
CCS technologies capture carbon dioxide
emissions, often from a source like a factory smoke stack, to
prevent them from being released into the atmosphere. The captured
CO2 can then be stored permanently underground, or repurposed in
industrial processes that use CO2.
Oil demand growth is not set to peak until the
end of this decade at the earliest and Forrest said carbon capture
was not a viable solution.
"We're going to keep burning fossil fuels and
somehow magically get rid of the carbon down into the ground where
there is no proof that it will stay there, but heaps of proof that
it fails," Forrest told the conference.
"I say for policy makers everywhere do not be
the next idiot waiting for the old lie to be trotted out and say I
believe in carbon sequestration. It has only failed for 75
years...It's a complete falsehood."
Australia's Fortescue is a major iron ore
producer, which is used in steel-making and it announced a new project
last year to produce green steel on a commercial scale. Iron and
steel-making account for a major share of global heavy industry
emissions, and its trade has become source of contention between the
United States and the EU, which have so far failed to
negotiate a "green steel" trade deal.
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