Shyla Raghav, Chief Climate Officer at TIME, sat down with Dr Andrew Forrest, Executive Chairman and Founder of Fortescue, as well as one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People of 2025. As Raghav pointed out at the top of their conversation, mining is one of the most polluting industries in the world, and yet Forrest has an ambitious goal to eliminate the company’s iron ore emissions by 2030.

Forrest’s position might seem contradictory, but he argued that switching to green energy simply makes the most business sense at the end of the day. Green energy is our future, Forrest said, “And it’s infinite.”

From a business perspective, technologies for harnessing clean energy sources such as wind and hydrogen are becoming more and more competitive with fossil fuel, which, Forrest noted, is “kind of maxed out.” He argued that the fossil fuel industry hasn’t progressed technologically in the past few decades, while solar energy has come down by 40 percent in just the past year.

Forrest also applauded the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) efforts to improve the sustainability of the shipping industry, another major world polluter. The IMO has brought in a carbon tax, and even steeper taxes for the most harmful ships, Forrest said, describing these efforts as a really serious move for the entire industry, which sets an example for other polluting industries such as steel and mining. “Instead of going country by country, let's look at going industry by industry,” said Forrest.