- 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.”
I am extremely split about Forrest.
As far as mining magnates go, he is obviously a world apart from the likes of Rinehart and Palmer. He makes the right noises in many areas, and seems to be doing a lot of good things.
Ont he other hand, a number of his philanthropic projects spent a lot of money while going nowhere, his company FMG is involved in long-running disputes and controversies regarding mining without permission in Aboriginal land while destroying cultural and sacred sites, and he was the architect of the abominable cashless welfare card.
You can’t be a “mining magnate” and a good person. That’s just not possible.