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A bit rich? Billionaires’ climate efforts draw scepticism, praise | Coronavirus pandemic


Australia’s second-richest man, mining magnate Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, is known by his admirers as a casual businessman, dressed like self-made billionaires Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.

And like his contemporaries in the United States, Forrest, president of Fortescue Metals, the world’s fourth-largest iron ore producer, has taken on a leading role in the fight against climate change.

Forrest is spending AU$114 billion ($81 billion), including AU$3 billion ($2.13 billion) of its own money, to build the world’s largest electrolyte, a splits water into oxygen and hydrogen. Powered by wind and solar energy, it will create a zero-emission energy source and promise to destroy steel mills in Asia.

“Green electricity, green ammonia and green hydrogen could cover 100% of the world’s carbon emissions,” Forrest said during a talk at the National Press Club in Canberra in October.

Billionaires like the pro-climate Forrest are joined by environmental activists and commentators. While some welcome the super-rich’s new focus on the climate, others question whether their actions can be seen as altruistic after they have accumulated their fortunes and continued to earn. billions of dollars, from heavily polluting industries or not.

According to Australia’s Clean Energy Regulatory Authority, Fortescue Metals emitted 2.2 million tonnes of carbon last year, not including the 241 million tonnes emitted from the company’s iron ore smelting in China.

“Except [Australia’s richest person and fellow mining magnate] Gina Rinehart, no Australian has done more damage to the environment than Andrew Forrest,” a journalist for the Australian Financial Review said in a recent commentary.

Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos created a $10 billion fund for climate change in 2020, while his company Amazon emitted more than 60 million tons of carbon that year. [File: Joshua Roberts/Reuters]

Bezos offers a similarly mixed track record. In 2020, he created a $10 billion fund for climate change. But his company Amazon emitted more than 60 million tons of carbon that year – 15% more than in 2019 – while posting a record $386 billion in revenue.

According to a report by Oxfam and the Stockholm Environment Institute, the richest 1% of people in the world are responsible for 15% of carbon emissions – almost twice as much as the poorest 50% of the world.

Similarly, just 1% of the world’s population is responsible for half of the emissions caused by aviation, while nearly 90% of people almost never fly, according to research by the Southwest Research Institute. Uy.

Bill Gates, who published his book How to Avoid Climate Disasters last year, has an annual carbon footprint of 7,493 tonnes, mostly from flying in private jets, according to a University study Indiana on the carbon footprint of billionaires. This is nearly 3,000 times more carbon than the average person in Fiji generates in a year, and at least 11,350 times more than the average person in Laos.

Scientist Emily Ghosh of the Stockholm Environment Institute told Al Jazeera: “When it comes to climate change and carbon emissions, our research over the past 30 years shows a stark difference between emissions. emissions caused by the super rich compared to the poor. “So even though they are primarily responsible, they are the ones who decide the solution.”

In many cases, the solutions proposed by billionaires involve expensive new technology such as green hydrogen, which, if successfully scaled up, will create new monopolies that control consumption patterns in the world. decades, Ghosh said.

She said: “We need to stop looking at magical solutions. “That’s what got us here in the first place and I’m worried we’ll go down a path like we’re tied to one technology and don’t consider the diversity of energy options. .”

‘Conflict of interest’

Another potential conflict of interest involving a billionaire climate change fighter is shaping up in Australia ahead of the May 21 federal election.

Simon Holmes a Court, son of the country’s first billionaire Robert Holmes a Court, is giving out millions of dollars through Climate 200, a private foundation, to candidates who set the highest emissions targets of the their constituency. As the founder of Decarb Ventures, an investment firm focused on renewable technology, Holmes a Court could profit if his candidates win office.

“Billionaires with huge investments in renewable industries will argue that there is nothing wrong with giving money to politicians. But I see a clear conflict of interest,” said Daniel Lewkovitz, a free-market Liberal Democratic Party candidate whose rival Allegra Spender received A$60,000 from Climate 200. with Al Jazeera. “And if the only thing independents cared about was reducing carbon emissions, they would all be as pro-nuclear as I am. Allegra Spender refuses to argue with me about nuclear power.”

Spender was not immediately available for comment. Holmes a Court and Climate 200 did not respond to questions, while Forrest declined to comment on his perception of his dual role as climate hero and polluter.

Asked recently by Australian television if his new mission to replace fossil fuels with green hydrogen was motivated by shame, Forrest said he was “absolutely not ashamed”.

“Now, if I don’t do anything about it when I know I can, then I’ll be ashamed,” he said.

The Australasian Center for Corporate Responsibility, a shareholder advocacy organization, described Forrest’s plan as a “bold and welcome undertaking”, adding that his competitors are BHP and Rio Tinto, the world’s second and third largest iron ore producers, “should be ashamed to be overtaken by a smaller company.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is one of the highest advocates of free enterprise and innovation as a solution to the climate crisis, arguing for “capitalism can do” rather than “don’t do it”. goverment”.

“Just like entrepreneurship has worked alongside scientists and technology to change the world in the past… I firmly believe that they hold the answer to solving the challenge of the de-colonization economy. carbon,” Morrison said at a business event in November.

Smoke rises from the cooling towers of a coal-fired power plant in Australia
Billionaires’ efforts to reduce carbon emissions have polarized commentators [File: Saeed Khan/AFP]

However, Fortescue Metals will continue to pump millions of tons of carbon into the atmosphere for at least another eight years, according to the company’s 2030 carbon neutrality plan.

Instead of looking to billionaires to “wag their magic wands,” Ghosh at the Stockholm Environment Institute believes “solutions should come from the bottom as well as the top because one solution won’t fit in every space.” “.

“We need to look at solutions in context and listen to the people who live there, especially those already affected by climate change and those who are sustainable,” she said.

However, more and more billionaires take their hats off.

This week, Australia’s third-richest man, Mike Cannon-Brookes, co-founder of software giant Atlassian, bought an 11% stake in AGL Energy, the biggest contributor to the land’s carbon footprint. water, in an effort to prevent a proposed demolition company from watching its coal plants operate until 2045.

Cannon-Brookes, who wants to transform AGL by injecting A$20 billion into renewable energy and battery storage, has described its plan as the largest single decarbonisation project in the world.

“We are at a critical juncture in Australia’s energy transition and in the future of AGL,” the billionaire said in a statement.

Dario Kenner, author of Carbon Inequality. The role of the richest in climate change, says Cannon-Brookes methodology is flawed.

“The urgency of the climate crisis means that there is no time to go green for one company, like AGL,” he told Al Jazeera. “The energy transition has been heavily shaped by governments in the past, and it is something that will need to happen again to reduce the use of oil, gas and coal across the economy as quickly as possible.”



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