Despite mounting protests, Japan continues to finance the building of coal-fired power plants with money earmarked for fighting climate change, with two new projects under way in India and Bangladesh, The Associated Press has found.
The AP reported in December that Japan had counted US$1 billion in loans for coal plants in Indonesia as climate finance, angering critics who say such financing should be going to clean energy like solar and wind power.
Japanese officials now say they are also counting US$630 million in loans for coal plants in Kudgi, India, and Matarbari, Bangladesh, as climate finance. The Kudgi project has been marred by violent clashes between police and local farmers who fear the plant will pollute the environment.
Tokyo says the projects are climate-friendly because the plants use technology that burns coal more efficiently, reducing their carbon emissions compared to older coal plants. Japanese officials also stress that developing countries need coal power to grow their economies and expand access to electricity.
“Japan is of the view that the promotion of high-efficiency coal-fired power plants is one of the realistic, pragmatic and effective approaches to cope with the issue of climate change,” Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Takako Ito said.
Climate finance is money promised by rich countries in UN climate talks to help poor countries limit their carbon emissions. Japan announced at a UN climate conference in Peru in December last year that it has provided US$16 billion in climate finance since 2013. However, the UN has no rules defining climate finance, meaning governments decide for themselves what projects to include in their accounting.
Environmental activists are demanding that at the very least, climate finance should exclude coal and other fossil fuels that scientists blame for warming the planet.
“Japan’s support for new coal-fired power plants not only destroys the climate; it also displaces communities, is likely to cause untold local environmental damage, and primarily benefits Japanese companies instead of recipient countries,” ActionAid senior policy analyst Brandon Wu said. “This is unacceptable on its own, and the fact that it is being done in the name of ‘climate finance’ makes a farce of the entire concept.”
Climate activists are now urging the recently created Green Climate Fund, which is supposed to become a key channel of climate finance, to explicitly ban funding for fossil fuel projects. The issue is likely to be discussed at the fund’s board meeting this week in South Korea.
The Matarbari plant is financed with a Japanese development loan agreed with the Bangladeshi government in June last year.
The Kudgi project is partially financed by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), which supports Japanese companies abroad through export credits. The bank agreed in January last year to provide US$210 million in loans to Indian power company NTPC Ltd to finance the purchase of steam turbine generators and boiler feed water pumps to be used in the coal plant from a local subsidiary of Toshiba, a major Japanese company.
Construction there has resumed after coming to a standstill following violent protests in July last year when police opened fire on angry demonstrators. Two farmers were wounded in the shootings.
One of them, Chandappa Holleppa, said he was shot in the stomach and left hand.
“I fell on the road and was bleeding badly... Policemen picked me up and took me to a hospital,” where he remained for two months, he told reporters.
The protesters have set up a makeshift shed of bamboo sticks and tin sheets and plastic in the nearby village of Muttagi. They are focused on the plant’s local environmental impact, such as potential air pollution, rather than its contribution to global carbon emissions.
“We want more power but not this one,” local farmers’ organization head Sidramappa Ranjanagi said. “In America they have stopped coal-based plants because it affects people’s health. Why can’t the government come up with solar power plants? We use solar power units at home here and they’re good.”
Kudgi plant technical services manager A Sathyabhama said NTPC is trying to assure the villagers that the plant is environmentally safe.
Japanese environmental activist Yuki Tanabe has met with JBIC officials several times to urge them to withdraw funding for the Kudgi plant, citing concerns over human rights violations and environmental damage.
“JBIC responded that the human rights situation has been improved, and environmental concerns have been addressed,” Tanabe said. “The project was approved, and no possibility to stop it now.”
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