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The Japanese government’s financing of natural gas projects worldwide, via its international development lender, has resulted in environmental degradation and human rights violations, according to recent report.
The report by the NGO Friends of the Earth (FoE) Japan notes that the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) has provided $18.6 billion for liquefied natural gas (LNG) production since 2016. “This amount is more than four times Japan’s $4.2 billion contribution to the Green Climate Fund,” Hiroki Osada, FoE Japan’s development finance and environment campaigner, said at a press briefing.
Japan is the world’s largest buyer of LNG, but demand has fallen by 25% since 2014 and will fall by another 25% by 2030, Sam Reynolds, research lead with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, said at the briefing. This is due to the country’s move toward nuclear and renewable energy, and a declining population, he added.
Despite this, JBIC continues to finance LNG projects, which is causing widespread problems, according to the report that features case studies from nine affected countries.
Osada said that while LNG is “praised for being clean, cheap and essential for development … this report shows the exact opposite.”
In Bangladesh, energy produced from LNG costs 10 times more than electricity generated from domestic fuel, the report says. In at least four countries, JBIC-funded projects threaten marine biodiversity and the livelihood of fishers.
“Fisherfolk and civil society have documented numerous violations … to the global biodiversity hotspot which is the Verde Island Passage [VIP],” Gerry Arances, executive director of the Philippine-based Center for Energy, Ecology, and Development, said at the briefing. VIP is a strait in the Philippines dubbed the “Amazon of the Oceans” for its rich marine life.
A 2022 study showed “alarming levels of pollutants” like heavy metals in the water surrounding the construction site of a JBIC- and Osaka Gas-funded LNG import terminal in the VIP. Another study found that coral cover was low and fish abundance “very poor” in the area. Similar concerns of biodiversity loss were cited in Thailand.
In Indonesia, fishers reported reduced income after being barred from fishing in waters surrounding an LNG project.
JBIC-backed projects in Australia and Canada were also found to have failed to secure the free, prior and informed consent of Indigenous peoples.
In a video message, Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chief Na’moks said of a JBIC-financed project tied to their territory, “We will never support that pipeline. It [Montney Fracking Fields] is the sixth-largest carbon bomb on the planet.”
FoE’s Osada said JBIC’s continued fossil fuel financing after 2022 violates Japan’s G7 commitment to end direct public support for overseas fossil fuel projects.
He called on Japan to expand its current ban on coal project financing “to include all fossil fuels including gas” and to commit to increasing its climate contributions at the upcoming COP29 climate summit.
Banner image: JBIC-funded Ilijan LNG Terminal in the Philippines’ Verde Island Passage. Image courtesy of CEED.
