Mining mogul turned self-appointed climate saviour Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest pulled no punches today on what he really thinks about climate change denying politicians.

The billionaire has been expanding his iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group into a renewable energy firm, which is developing project in areas including green hydrogen, solar power, geothermal, wind and hydropower.

While discussing FMG’s half-year profit results on a conference call with journalists and analysts today,  Mr Forrest said that politicians who don’t believe in global warming should literally take a hike.

“People who do not understand the grave risk of climate change should not be in any position of influence, and if they exploit those who are trying to work against climate change, then history will judge them very, very badly.

“If they don’t believe the science, then they can just f**k off, right.

“They should be nowhere near having any responsibility whatsoever.”

That was in response to a question from Australian Financial Review mining reporter Peter Ker about the Federal Greens threatening to block Labor’s safeguard mechanism reform legislation, which is aimed at reducing carbon emissions from the heavy industrial sector and the resources industry, unless there is a ban on new coal and gas mines in Australia.

“Peter, thank you for that excellent smack in the middle of a landmine field question.”

Mr Forrest went on to say it was crucial for governments to do more to mitigate global warming.

“Every legislator in the world should bring themselves up to speed on the science and act accordingly.

“We need to be ambitious.

“This company, Fortescue, is leading by example.

“And I’m urging governments all over the world, wherever I go.

“It’s like I hit the road in the middle of COVID for effective(ly) years of my time, to educate governments that we are facing a real and present danger, and there are solutions, they do not have to wipe out our planet.”

It’s very rare to hear company executives swear on earnings calls (in more than ten years as a business reporter this is the only instance that I can recall), but Twiggy gave a passionate defence of the need to save the planet from climate catastrophe.

If you want to hear more from Andrew Forrest on climate change here is the 2020 Boyer Lecture, where he calls on business to do more to tackle global warming.