The most interesting point to make about the Fortescue (ASX:FMG) FY25 release on Tuesday, in my view, is the company hasn’t ditched its dreams of revolutionising decarbonisation, even proposing that Australian businesses ditch the term ‘Net Zero.’
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Instead, it wants companies to use the term ‘Real Zero’ – reflecting a clearer desire, in FMG’s view (Twiggy’s), to move away from fossil fuels entirely.
As an addendum to that, it doesn’t want companies to use offsets (which don’t work), nor does it want them to use carbon capture (practically unproven to work).
If the industrial revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race, which is kind of hard to argue against if you’re the type of person who is interested in fungi and birds, FMG – iron ore miner – is here to save us. With terminology.
It’s the latest evidence from the company that Andrew Forrest’s ambitions for green energy, associated now probably forever with his push for hydrogen in the COVID-19 years, are going to Die Hard.
How exactly Forrest thinks a global pipeline infrastructure cobweb able to port hydrogen gas would ever manifest, traditional oil and gas pipelines can’t handle the stuff outright, is a question this journalist would love to ask, if he had Andrew’s number.
It’s also an interesting thing to come out in the same year big companies are now forced to start reporting Scope 3 emissions, which ASIC once called the biggest change to reporting rules in a generation, and which has meant absolutely squat for this year’s earnings season.
Fortescue, at least, reported making 2/3rds of its fleet electric in September last year, more or less kicking off FY25 with a green ESG push.
As for earnings outside of ESG ambitions, FMG’s divvy was cut from 80c to 60c this year; profits fell around -40% on commodity prices, but the stock hasn’t really been hurt too badly whatsoever in Tuesday trades.
FMG last traded at $19.59/sh.
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