Fortescue founder provides more detail on CEO's sudden exit

Forrest was in Perth yesterday opening the Boao Forum for Asia in a presentation he promised would be "social media-friendly" but backed by science.Alluding to the recent departure of metals CEO Fiona Hick, Forrest said his presentation "may explain a lot, particularly to my Fortescue family"."There's been changes and there's been a steely discipline about our future - our galloping herd of 20,000 and among Minderoo and Tattarang, another several thousand," he said."We decide on a future. We stick to that future. Individual ambitions come second because what I'm talking about is the future of humanity."Speaking to 9News Perth after the presentation, Forrest said Hick was not pushed."Fiona was given a choice to make and she chose," he said."We have a full and very green agenda - I think it's going to be great for shareholders and it's absolutely essential for the environment and you either get with it or you don't, it's as simple as that."I said at the start of this transition, 12 people would change in the C-suite of this company - we're nowhere near 12 yet."You're going to see further change if it's required. There's no better governed company in this country and there's been no better performance by any company for total shareholder returns in this country for decades."Forrest told the Boao Forum climate change was causing an immediate threat to human health that was more lethal than the COVID-19 pandemic."Something else is rising much faster than temperature," he said."It's called lethal humidity."Forrest, who has a PhD in marine ecology, said for every 1-degree rise in temperature, humidity was rising by 7%."Normally your sweat would cool you down, but if it's too humid, your sweat can't evaporate," he said."Are you safe in a city? Hell no. If you're outdoors, you're toast."Forrest said lethal humidity would be the next global pandemic."We just can't avoid it and unless we can put the handbrake on over the next 10 years, it's going to live with us forever," he said."We do not have the human evolution to survive it."Forrest warned animals would also die and the world's food supply would dwindle as crops would not be able to grow.He said the world was suffering from Stockholm Syndrome."We're tied to fossil fuels and we think we can't get out of them even though they're killing us," he said."We think we can't survive without them but we can and we must."Forrest said the industrial world caused global warming."It's my responsibility and it's our political leaders' responsibility to ensure that the metals, the energy that you have every right to consume are not delivered to you in a form that will kill your children," he said."You have to hold us to account. It's the biggest greenwash in the world to blame the public."It's us. One major company must go first so among the truckload of criticism … we've committed to go first."Forrest accused the oil and gas sector of forcing the word "net" into the Paris Agreement."Coal, oil and gas deposits, very interesting, very yesterday - so disposable," he said."If you focus on coal, oil and gas deposits, apart from being way out of sync with what humanity needs, you are so yesterday."Fortescue is targeting real zero by 2030.Forrest called on China, the US and India to "simply" match what Fortescue was doing.Forrest called for the three countries to end their "geopolitical struggle" and agree to a "green armistice" which could be discussed at the upcoming G20 meeting in New Delhi and APEC in November.He slammed the "weenies" for wanting to overcomplicate matters."If the agreement is simple, the rest of the world will follow."More broadly, he called for governments to match policy settings to risk, remove barriers to green energy manufacturing and abolish subsidies for fossil fuels."It's business which is causing global warming, it's business which will kill your children and it's business which is causing lethal humidity but it's policy which guides business," Forrest said."You must hold us to account. Don't let us with our clever advertising blame you, the consumer. That's rubbish."Business, guided by government, will either destroy or save this planet. Hold us to account - the power of you. Make us change."

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