At a time when the world feels fractured and divided, Fortescue is advancing cross- border partnerships to accelerate industrial decarbonisation and build the lowest-cost 24/7 energy system – one that outcompetes and outprices fossil fuels.
Fortescue is building global alliances – linking the Pilbara’s world-leading operational expertise, America’s and Australia’s research and development strength, the UK’s and Europe’s innovation and engineering excellence and anchoring it all with scale and cost-efficient manufacturing capability in China and the US.
Together, this creates a powerful multilateral network of commercial cooperation to accelerate decarbonisation and defeat mankind's greatest threat – global warming. These partnerships – announced in New York during the United Nations General Assembly – will not only enable Fortescue to electrify its Pilbara operations and deliver on its target of Real Zero by 2030, but also catalyse decarbonisation globally.
As part of this partnership-led plan, Fortescue has signed agreements with some of the world’s most advanced green energy innovators: global leader in electric vehicles and in battery manufacturing and development, BYD; solar technology and manufacturing giant, LONGi; construction and mining equipment manufacturer, XCMG; and wind and energy storage leader, Envision Energy.
Fortescue has also finalised the acquisition of Spanish renewable technology company Nabrawind. These agreements build on Fortescue’s global innovation ecosystem – where European powerhouse Liebherr already plays a pivotal role in decarbonising Fortescue’s mining fleet with the production of T 264 trucks in Virginia in the United States.
They are underpinned by world-leading research and development through Fortescue Zero, which utilises the Colorado Technology Hub in the United States, advanced technology collaborations with CSIRO in Australia, and its R&D centre at Oxford in the United Kingdom, to drive the innovations behind Fortescue’s decarbonisation and future green technologies.
Together, these partnerships and hubs of innovation ensure Fortescue integrates the world’s best technology into its operations and delivers its green energy operations at unmatched scale and cost. The urgency of Fortescue’s action has been sharpened by new research in Nature which quantifies, for the first time, the contributions of individual companies to increases in the intensity and probability of hundreds of heatwaves across the world between 2000 and 2023. These findings highlight the growing legal, regulatory, financial and reputational risks that fossil fuel reliant companies face. They reinforce the importance of industry taking action and progressing practical decarbonisation solutions at speed.
“The world once benefited from open trade and cooperation – now it is divided. Fortescue is showing that industry can help glue back that multilateral spirit, not through rhetoric but through practical alliances that prove heavy industry can follow a new path – one where profits rise as emissions fall,” Fortescue Executive Chairman and Founder, Dr Andrew Forrest AO, said. “China is scaling and manufacturing green technologies at unprecedented speed and our partnerships give Fortescue access to that capability. “Meanwhile, through Nabrawind in Spain, Liebherr in Germany and the United States, Fortescue Zero in the United Kingdom, and Fortescue operations in the Pilbara in Western Australia, we are building a global R&D and production network.
“This is a truly multilateral collaboration that draws on the best ideas and manufacturing capacity to deliver the lowest cost energy and tackle climate change. “By joining forces across continents, we are seizing the full extent of the decarbonisation opportunity and rebuilding the cooperation the world needs to address the climate crisis.”