Australian mining magnate Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest has accused energy companies and businesses selling single-use plastics of forcing customers to "destroy the planet".
Speaking to 7.30's Sarah Ferguson from Egypt where he is attending the UN climate summit COP27, Mr Forrest urged energy companies to give customers greener alternatives.
"All I'm saying to the fossil fuel sector is, if you're like the single-use plastic sector, if you're like Coca-Cola and you just give single-use plastic as your container for Coke, then you're forcing your customers to be single-use plastic nature destroyers," Mr Forrest told 7.30.
"Now turn away from that, give your customers choice."
Coca-Cola is one of the sponsors for the UN Climate Change Conference — a move which has drawn criticism from climate activists, as the company is one of the world's largest plastic polluters.
Mr Forrest said it bothered him that Coke was a sponsor of the summit, and he urged its CEO to invest capital into researching plastic recycling.
"You can only recycle plastic, on current technology, three or four times," Mr Forrest told 7.30.
"Putting all your money into greenwashing, putting all your money into COP, that's not going to help anyone."
'Desperate to try and stop' China's new coal-fired power plants
The year since COP26 in Glasgow — which Mr Forrest also attended — has seen more natural disasters such as floods that submerged a third of Pakistan, and more warnings about China's rapid and ongoing construction of new coal-fired power plants.
He said a "peaceful mutual engagement" between the United States and China would see China take a "much more proactive stance" on climate change.
"I am desperate to try and stop them doing that [building coal-fired power stations]", he said.
"But at this stage, I don't have the solution. I'm working feverishly ... to get them solutions, and so are other entrepreneurs in China.
"If people want to educate their kids or switch on the lights, then unfortunately, they're going to coal — but that's our fault. We need to deliver non-fossil fuel energy to them, so we give them a choice."
'Give them renewable energy'
Mr Forrest said big energy producers needed to give their customers better options.
"Right now you're forcing them to destroy the planet for their kids. Give them a choice, give them renewable energy.
"They don't care what energy you give them. They don't care if it comes out of a smokestack or a solar farm. They just want to consume the energy, it's your job to give them that choice.
"And if it's going to cost them a bit more so they don't destroy the kids, why don't you go find out if they're prepared to do that?"
Mr Forrest is investing in solar farms to lay the groundwork for Fortescue Future Industries to be producing 15 million tonnes of green hydrogen by 2030.
He has been discussing his plans with King Charles and the new UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
He said the problem "is with chief executives, with chairmen who have big industrial companies like mine, and they have not put the thought process in".
"They haven't asked their workforce to give them solutions. They haven't said to their workforce, 'Imagine if we switched off fossil fuel, the diesel in '26, the coal in '26, the gas or petrol or oil in 2026, what would we be doing now?'
"Give your workforce the opportunity to answer those questions and then take really good notice of their answers, because they'll give you the ideas you need to stop being lazy and send your company beyond fossil fuel, which is where the world must go."
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