Problems of Fossil Fuel related Business in Various Overseas Countries

Even after the signing of the Paris Agreement, Japan is promoting fossil fuel related businesses including the construction of coal-fired power plants both domestically and internationally while the world is moving towards coal phase-out and decarbonization. There are many fossil fuel related projects (including those under consideration) that are invested or supported by JBIC, JICA, NEXI, Japanese financial institutions and private companies all over the world. However, it is obvious that these projects cause various problems such as contributing to climate change, destroying local environments, impacting the livelihoods of local residents such as agriculture and fisheries, damaging human health, etc. For these reasons, Japanese support for fossil fuel related businesses has become an international issue.

The Japanese government insists it exports highly efficient coal technology, but the latest pollution control technology is rarely introduced to coal-fired power plants being built in host countries. Therefore, the emission concentrations of pollutants from those power plants are relatively high. For 18 cases (including 1 case prospected to be coming up for consideration by JICA and 2 cases in planning stage), for which related documents such as environmental impact assessment were available, we investigated pollution control measures and emission concentrations of sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxide (NOx), and dust in each project. In comparison with five coal-fired power plants in Japan, for which we could obtain similar related information, it became clear that the emission concentrations of overseas power plants supported by Japan (i.e. JBIC) tend to be much higher than those of domestic power plants.

In addition to the construction of coal-fired power plants, Japan is involved in a number of fossil fuel related projects that get in the way of  decarbonization, such as new construction of gas-fired power plants and  pipelines, and development of infrastructure related to coal mining and transportation. Some of these cause serious environmental damage and human rights violations.

Below is a Factsheet (summary) for each project and its related issues.

Reference

Comparison of environmental measuring technologies between JBIC supported (including planning) oversea coal-fired power plants and Japanese coal-fired power plants (PDF)

Fossil Fuel related projects (other than coal-fired power generation)