PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Iron-ore major Fortescue Metals and its green energy arm Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) have formally joined the United Nations (UN) Race to Zero Coalition ahead of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.

“We are pleased to be joining the UN Race to Zero Coalition as we prepare to head to COP26 where we will make the case globally for increased investment in green hydrogen,” FFI CEO Julie Shuttleworth said.

“We must take action now to stop the planet from cooking and embrace green hydrogen so the world can lower emissions faster.”

Race to Zero is the UN-backed global campaign rallying leadership and support from businesses, cities, regions, as well as financial, educational and health institutions, to take rigorous and immediate action to halve global emissions by 2030 and deliver a zero-carbon world.

In addition to formally joining the UN initiative, the two companies have also signed The Climate Pledge, which brings together businesses across the globe who are playing a critical role in stimulating investment in the development of low-carbon products and services. 

The Climate Pledge is a commitment co-founded by Amazon and Global Optimism to be net-zero carbon by 2040. More than 100 organisations have so far signed The Climate Pledge.

Following a stringent due diligence process to be approved as a signatory for The Climate Pledge and to become a member of the UN Race to Zero, Fortescue is one of the only major mining companies in the world to meet the criteria for approval.  

“We are proud to be part of the international effort to lower global emissions as Fortescue transitions from a pure play iron-ore producer to a green renewables and resources company,” Fortescue CEO Elizabeth Gaines said.

“This is underpinned by our industry leading targets to be carbon neutral by 2030 in our mining operations and achieve net-zero Scope 3 emissions by 2040, with these initiatives making a substantial contribution to lowering emissions across our value chain from mining to shipping to steel production.”

Meanwhile, FFI on Friday announced that it has acquired the commercial assets of green hydrogen technology companies Xergy Inc and Xergy One Ltd. (Xergy) to form FFI Ionix Inc. 

A wholly owned subsidiary of FFI and based in the US, FFI Ionix will operate as a technology development company focused on global technology leadership and commercialisation of hydrogen technologies, including ion exchange membranes for water electrolysis, electrochemical compression, water transmission and fuel cells.

“These investments will advance the technologies needed for FFI’s green hydrogen projects,” Shuttleworth said on Friday.

“Together, our goal is to make zero-emissions energy available at an industrial, global scale as we become the world’s leading, fully renewable energy and green products company.”

FFI Ionix’s technology portfolio also includes several solid-state, non-mechanical, hydrogen compression and expansion technologies to support devices that operate on hydrogen and other gases as a fuel.