STOP Japanese Fossil Finance!

Issue on Projects

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.

Coal-fired power generation projects
Area Country Project Supported by Size Fact Sheet update
Asia India Kudgi JBIC, private banks 2,400MW
Darripali JBIC, private banks 1,600MW
Meja JBIC 1,260MW 2014/3/24
Indonesia Indramayu JICA→Japanese government announces suspension of support 1,000MW 2019/11
Cirebon 2 JBIC, private banks 1,000MW
Batang JBIC, private banks 2,000MW 2014/2/3
Malinau coal mining JBIC, private banks
Bangladesh Matarbari JICA→Regarding Matarbari 2, Japanese government announces suspension of support 1,200MW 2020/8
Viet Nam Nghi Son 2 JBIC, private banks 1,200MW
Hai Phong 1&2 JBIC, private banks 1,200MW 2015/4/17
Van Phong 1 JBIC, private banks 1,320MW
Vinh Tan 3 Chinese banks (media info.) 1,980MW
Vinh Tan 4 JBIC, private banks, Export-Import Bank of Korea 1,200MW
Vinh Tan 4 ex. JBIC, private banks 600MW
Vung Ang 2 JBIC, private banks 1,200MW
Mongolia Ulaanbaatar, CHP-5 JBIC 463.5MW
Myanmar Anne Din JBIC, private banks 1,280MW
Nga Yoke Kaung JBIC, private banks 600MW
Tharabwin unknown 2,500MW
Africa Botswana Morupule B JBIC, Export-Import Bank of Korea, private banks 300MW 2017/10/20
South Africa Thabametsi South Africa Public Investment Corporation etc. 630MW 2019/5/30
Europe Croatia Plomin C 500MW
South America Chile Cochrane JBIC, private banks 472MW

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)

Area Country Project Related organization/companies Siz Fact sheet update
will be updated