Tokyo, Japan — Greenpeace activists, joined by a Thai community leader, today confronted officials of the Japanese government bank with their demands for investing in clean renewable energy instead of dirty energies that are contributing to climate change, local pollution, and community displacement.
This confrontation came after a series of the Greenpeace actions in Hong Kong, Australia, and Philippines demanding an "Energy Revolution", by introducing more clean renewable energy and phasing-out environmentally and socially harmful energy sources, like coal in the Asian region. With a banner saying "Stop Funding Climate Change, Go for Clean Renewable Energy", Greenpeace activists and a community leaders from Thailand, Philippines, Chile, India, and China directly delivered their messages of "Energy Revolution" to the bank.

The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), the largest governmental development bank and export credit agency in Asia, has been making little efforts--far from being sufficient--to stop dangerous climate change and alleviate local problems, and disbursing substantial Japanese tax payers' money to many dirty energy projects in Asia, including US$233 million to the 1400MW coal- fired power plant being constructed for the Map Ta Phut industrial estate in Thailand.

Unless JBIC and the Japanese government change their course of investments and support clean renewable energy in developing regions, it would be very difficult to prevent dangerous effects of global warming said Greenpeace Japan Climate Change campaigner, Masaaki Nakajima. "The Japanese government asserts all countries should participate in the UN international efforts to mitigate climate change, but it is the Japanese government and JBIC that are hampering the clean and sustainable development in those developing countries. This is sheer contradiction to their argument" he added.

In addition to fuelling climate change, the construction of the power plant in Map Ta Phut estate is already polluting our water, eroding our coast and affecting our fisheries. It is having a severe impact on the health and livelihood of local people. The Thai community leader in the Map Ta Phut, Charoen Detkhum, who has been fighting against polluting developments forced on his community for decades, is arguing financiers like JBIC should not be using public money to lock his country into this polluting power system that destroy his community and alleviate climate change problems.

"JBIC must start new way of thinking for financing cleaner, safer solutions. We are delivering concrete real solutions, including Wind Guangdong in China, and renewables initiative in Philippines and India. The direction JBIC and Japanese government must look at is clear, now is the time to act for sustainable future" concluded Nakajima.