Richard Adkerson on climate change
From The War Below: Lithium, Copper & the Global Battle For Power - Ernest Scheyder and Richard Adkerson · · New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University
“Climate change is real. I mean all of us I still have a home in New Orleans and all of us here uh worry about the effects of of of the increased frequency and severity of hurricanes. The city certainly saw it about the time we moved out. We didn't move out because of that by the way. Um uh the uh and then out west forest fires are just unbelievable. I mean uh the devastation in Los Angeles.”
On , Richard Adkerson, Former Chairman & Chief Executive Officer at Freeport-McMoRan, spoke about climate change during The War Below: Lithium, Copper & the Global Battle For Power - Ernest Scheyder and Richard Adkerson on New Orleans Book Festival at Tulane University.
About Richard Adkerson
Richard Adkerson, former chairman and CEO of Freeport-McMoRan, participated in a moderated discussion with journalist Ernest Scheyder in New Orleans on May 1, 2025, about Scheyder's book "The War Below: Lithium, Copper & the Global Battle For Power." During the event, Adkerson discussed the role of copper in the modern economy, stating that "two-thirds of copper goes into generating, transmitting or using electricity" and that electric vehicles contain "three or four times more copper" than conventional cars. He said that Freeport-McMoRan produces "almost 75% of the copper consumed in the United States" and described permitting as a challenge to developing domestic resources. Adkerson also commented on global copper demand, saying that "China changed everything" and that while his company produces more copper than China as a country, China "consumes almost 60% of the world's copper." He acknowledged that "climate change is real" and expressed concern about the effects of increased hurricane frequency and severity. In a separate appearance in Washington, D.C. on May 14, 2018, Adkerson introduced Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani at a gala dinner hosted by the American Indonesian Chamber of Commerce. He praised Mulyani as a "serious minded capable woman" and noted that her talk at a Women's Forum earlier that day was "inspiring for the women but quite frankly it was very inspiring for men."