The International Renewable Energy Agency has forecast rapid growth in coming years. Fortescue is looking at developing the project in the province of Río Negro with a view to producing green hydrogen on an industrial scale, which the government said would help create more than 15,000 direct jobs and additional ones indirectly. "It is expected to turn Río Negro into a global green hydrogen export hub by 2030," the government said. "It is the most important international investment for our country in the last 20 years." Fernandez and Forrest, it said, met on the sidelines of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. Agustin Pichot, the Latin America head of Fortescue Future Industries, the mining firm's green energy unit, said in a press conference alongside government officials that the project would be one of the company's most important worldwide. "We signed a memorandum of understanding a few months ago and today we are talking about an investment of around $8 billion," he said.