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Fortescue is already committed to investing about $1 billion in decarbonisation and renewables development in its mining operations by 2023 and says its renewable energy plans in Western Australia could eliminate the need to import a billion litres of diesel.

Dr Forrest flagged that the company would provide funding to get renewable projects off the ground as it had in iron ore mining before turning to global equity markets.

He said the approach would pay off in the same way the risks involved in launching Fortescue's iron ore operations 17 years ago had paid off, and reminded shareholders that the company had raised and repaid $US33 billion ($45 billion) in debt over its journey.

"We may put on billions of dollars of additional projects but there are trillions of dollars of capital available," he said.

"One of our potential partners themselves has over $700 billion of cash at bank and they want to dedicate this to renewable industries."