DAVOS, Switzerland — Australian mining executive Andrew Forrest is emerging as one of the world's few top business leaders willing to publicly and loudly buck President Trump on climate change.

Why it matters: The broader business community is largely staying quiet in the face of Trump's aggressive moves in a number of areas, including on clean energy.

Driving the news: Forrest is CEO and founder of Australia-based Fortescue, one of the world's largest mining companies.

• "Even the most selfish political leaders know that there are boundaries to everything," Forrest said on the main stage at the World Economic Forum, which took over Davos last week.
• "We risk being those business and political leaders who knew of the planet's limits, and crossed them anyway."

The intrigue: Forrest convened three private meetings with between 20 and 50 CEOs to talk about the topic on the sidelines of the official proceedings.

• "I'm a lone ranger here, and they've chosen to let me stand alone," Forrest told Axios in an interview, when asked about other attendees.

Forrest says the fact that he's not American gives him more latitude to speak up. He said other CEOs are largely staying the course on cleantech investments and climate — but they're not saying that publicly.

• "They fear retribution," Forrest said. "That's not the way to run a country."

What they're saying: Former Vice President Al Gore attended at least one meeting, and praised Forrest's leadership.

• "The climate movement is lucky to have Andrew as such a staunch ally," Gore said in a statement to Axios. "No matter the headwinds, he has been unwavering in his work to rally the business community to take action to reduce planet-warming emissions."

Reality check: Forrest isn't exactly a hippie environmentalist. Others in the business community and activists have even accused him of greenwashing over the years.

• But the current political moment is reshuffling who speaks up — leaving even a mining executive whose company digs up the Earth sounding louder on climate than many of his peers.

Follow the money: Forrest, though still emphasizing the dire consequences of a warming Earth, said CEOs agree that it's ultimately economics driving investments into clean energy.

• "No one cares what you think of climate change. No one cares if you're passionately in love with oil and gas. Everyone cares what the economics are, and the economics are going straight to green energy."

The big picture: The Davos gathering, considered for years too elitist and out of touch to matter, largely redeemed itself as a worthy gathering.

What we're watching: Forrest isn't afraid of potential backlash from Trump for his comments: "It is the land of the free. I am entitled to say whatever I damn well wish."

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The number of people without power has declined over the past day, but now grids will face fresh tests as plunging temperatures will push up energy demand in key regions.

🧮 Roughly 540,000 customers lacked power this morning, per PowerOutage.com, with Tennessee still the hardest hit.

📜 The Energy Department yesterday issued more orders under the Federal Power Act aimed at maintaining reliability.

• The latest batch include permission for New York grid operators to allow plants exceed pollution limits if needed. Duke Energy was given a similar approval for North Carolina.

🥶 The Arctic chill knocked a substantial amount of natural gas production offline in the Permian, Bakken and beyond, and sent costs upward.

• "The freeze-offs have contributed to a historic jump in natural gas prices, driven by a dramatic shift in weather forecasts and the unique characteristics of this cold weather event," Wood Mackenzie analysts said in a note.
• U.S. natural gas futures shot up to their highest levels since 2022, with spot prices soaring even more. It reflects the "market squeeze from spiking heating demand and lost production," East Daley Analytics said in a note, noting front-month Henry Hub futures climbed 110% over the last 10 days.

⚔️ The politics of energy have blown in with the storm. Trump officials are using the storm to bash Biden-era anti-coal policies, calling them threats to the grid.

• But the group Climate Power said Trump's "war on clean energy" has "canceled or stalled critical investments" that would have protected more Americans from outages.
• And Harvard Law's Ari Peskoe said on X that an earlier emergency order was "all about exempting the region from pollution limits."

USA Rare Earth got an 8% share price bounce yesterday on news of the Trump administration's plan to provide $1.6 billion in financing and snag an equity stake.

The intrigue: The intraday rise was far higher before it fell back to earth.

• That could just be noise, but could also be from the market digesting the deal — and what it lacks.
• Unlike the U.S. agreement with rare earth firm MP Materials last year, this one does not contain a federal offtake agreement or price floor.

What they're saying: TD Cowen analysts, in a note, said it reflects an evolution of Trump administration market structure goals from a company-specific focus to a diplomatic one.

• It points out the State Department's planned critical minerals summit in early February.
• "While offtake and price floor discussions can take place on parallel paths (company and country-level), we see the State-led country-level negotiations as the Trump Admin's near-term priority," it states.

Go deeper: CNBC coverage ... investor deck ... SEC filings

GlassPoint, which sells solar-generated steam for industrial use, has raised $20 million in a Series A extension, Axios Pro Deals was first to report.

Why it matters: While still niche, a growing number of companies are looking to low-cost solar heat for processes like mining and manufacturing.

Zoom in: Liechtenstein asset management firm N.I.S. New Investment Solutions led the financing, and German venture firm MIG Capital participated.

• GlassPoint plans to use the funds to hire and ramp up for a series of large projects.

How it works: GlassPoint's solar tech uses mirrors to focus sunlight onto pipes filled with molten salts, heating them to make steam.

• The company plans to use project financing to develop the projects and then sell the steam in fixed 20-year power purchase agreements to industrial companies.
• CEO Rod MacGregor tells Axios that GlassPoint can sell steam to companies for cheaper than gas in places with ample sun and higher fuel costs, like the Middle East, South America, Southern Europe, and the U.S. Southwest.

The bottom line: Solar thermal was a growing sector years ago, but as solar panels got incredibly cheap, many solar thermal firms couldn't compete and faltered.

• Industrial customers could be key to bringing solar thermal back, or it could remain a curiosity on the sidelines.

Talk to our sales team about Axios Pro Deals for a steady diet of scoops and smart analysis.

⚛️ Nuclear fuel developer Standard Nuclear landed $140 million in Series A funding led by Decisive Point.

• Why it matters: It's a bet on growing demand for domestically produced fuel — in this case, specialized pebbles that can be used with various advanced reactor designs.
• Catch up quick: New investors include Chevron's VC arm, while the suite of existing backers re-upping include Andreessen Horowitz. The company is also working with the Energy Department's fuel pilot program.

⚛️ Microreactor startup Antares said it received a key DOE safety approval for a demonstration reactor under the department's reactor pilot program.

• State of play: There's now a "clear pathway to final DOE authorization as Antares prepares for fabrication, assembly, installation, and operation," the company said.

🤝 Engineering heavyweight Leidos is buying the energy-focused Entrust Solutions Group in a $2.4 billion deal.

• Why it matters: The acquisition greatly expands Leidos' energy work, and the investor deck on the deal sees tailwinds from — you guessed it — data centers and other demand drivers.

Giphy

Maybe he's trying to make "fetch" happen, but anyway...

• Energy analyst Jesse Jenkins mentioned a term for tech giants paying for new generation to power data centers — and ensuring the electrons are climate-friendly.
• He credits Microsoft's vow to pay its way — combined with its prior clean tech plans — with "channeling some real BYONCE energy: Bring Your Own New Clean Energy."

What we're watching: BYOP ("bring your own power") is getting stitched into regulatory policies.

• Now there's lots of interest in clean energy circles in making BYONCE standard, but gas and even coal also look like winners from the AI boom.