[Petition] Community Harms Must End: Japan, Stop Funding Fossil Fuels
Please join this petition from here.
From the straits of the Philippines to the coasts of the United States, Japan’s fossil fuel financing is harming the environment, climate, and communities at a time when the world is reeling from the ever-intensifying heat waves, floods, droughts, and typhoons brought by the climate crisis.
While the world must phase out fossil fuels, as affirmed by the outcomes of COP28, Japan continues to funnel billions of dollars to liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects through its public institutions like the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). In Southeast Asia alone, JBIC provided USD 3.31 billion to LNG projects that harm communities, derailing the region’s just transition to renewable energy.
Japan uses public funds to bolster a gas empire while attempting to mask LNG as a clean and necessary alternative to coal – it isn’t; gas can be as bad as coal for the climate. Japan’s fossil fuel financing exacerbates biodiversity loss, decimates livelihoods, inflicts long-term health repercussions, and forcibly displaces indigenous and local communities.
In the Verde Island Passage (VIP) in the Philippines, where JBIC supported the development of the country’s first LNG import terminal, communities have taken a critical step forward by filing a complaint to JBIC on potential safeguard violations. JBIC is currently investigating whether it failed to follow its own social and environmental guidelines.
It is time for Japanese Prime Minister Kishida to end Japan’s fossil financing, which allows JBIC to continue financing harmful gas projects like the VIP import terminal. Please join us by signing this petition.
JBIC’s gas projects contribute to environmental degradation and social injustice on a global scale.
JBIC is fueling the destruction of our rich, delicate biodiversity. Across the globe, LNG projects financed by JBIC directly imperil the delicate ecosystems beneath our oceans’ surfaces. The Verde Island Passage, hailed as the “Amazon of the Oceans," is now besieged by multiple LNG ventures, including the controversial terminal backed by JBIC. Confirmed violations—such as tree cutting, land conversion, and environmental compliance—underscore the gravity of the situation in the Verde Island Passage and surrounding communities, prompting a government agency to issue a Cease and Desist Order.
JBIC is driving the erosion of livelihoods. As JBIC funds fossil fuel expansion across the globe, it escalates the threat of disrupting the ecological balance on which human livelihoods rely. In Indonesia, JBIC-backed upstream and downstream gas projects in Central Sulawesi, West Papua, and West Java are already exacting a toll on fisherfolk and farmers, with fishing restrictions, dwindling access to traditional hunting and fishing grounds, and causing sharp decline in fish yields. In Rayong Province, Thailand, fisherfolk communities have expressed concerns over the livelihood impacts of an LNG import terminal situated in Map Ta Phut. This terminal, which supplies a JBIC-financed power plant, is adversely affecting biodiversity and various species of sea animals crucial for food supplies and the local economy, while communities are left behind without fair compensation.
JBIC is driving the forcible displacement of local and indigenous communities. In Canada, hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation have been voicing their opposition to the pipeline and want to protect the land and water resources they traditionally use. However, the project commenced without Free, Prior, and Informed Consent. The pipeline project is an indivisible part of the JBIC-financed LNG export facility. Peaceful protests were met with oppressive measures, resulting in numerous arrests and sparking nationwide solidarity protests. The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination issued a resolution calling for a pause in the project. Similarly, in Australia, JBIC-backed projects (Barossa and Scarborough gas projects) proceeded without consulting Traditional Owners in the Tiwi Island and the Pilbara region, as confirmed by the Federal Court of Australia.
JBIC is fostering long-term health crises. In the Gulf Coast of the United States, JBIC-financed LNG export terminals (Cameron and Freeport LNG have been marred by explosions and numerous gas leak accidents. These operations and accidents spew hazardous air pollutants, inflicting severe health repercussions including asthma, heart disease, and cancer upon local communities, particularly communities of color.
JBIC is exacerbating civil unrest and security threats. A JBIC-financed LNG project in Mozambique (Mozambique LNG) is poised to resume operations amidst escalating turmoil fueled by insurgent attacks. Project operator TotalEnergies refused refuge to civilian victims at its military-protected project site, leading to a criminal complaint for involuntary manslaughter. Furthermore, the project has indebted Mozambique for decades, is classified a carbon bomb, and has already cost the country lands, local economies, and valuable natural areas.
There is an evident pattern across LNG projects financed by JBIC. They are disastrous for climate change and even more so for the livelihoods, health, and security of local communities, biodiversity, and human rights.
We urge Prime Minister Kishida and JBIC to stop financing fossil gas and contribute to a full, fair, fast, funded, and feminist energy transition to renewable energy.
Signatories (95 organizations from 26 countries)
ACF Boroondara
AEER (Action for Ecology and People Emancipation)
African Climate Reality Project
ALC LAW
Alianza Mexicana contra el Fracking
ALL INDIA WOMENS HAWKER FEDERATION
Alternative Law Collective
Animals Are Sentient Beings, Inc.
Australian Conservation Foundation
Bantu Lukambo
California Communities Against Toxics
Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment
Canadian Unitarians for Social Justice
Center for Energy, Environment and Development
Centre for Environmental Law and Community Rights Inc.
Centre for Financial Accoutability
Citizens’ Climate Lobby Canada
Climate Conversation Brazoria County
Climate Reality Canada
Coastal Livelihood and Environmental Action Network (CLEAN)
Corner House
David Suzuki Foundation
Don’t Waste Arizona
EarthRights International
EEC Watch
ENVIRONICS TRUST
Environment Governance Institute Uganda
Environmental Defence
EPIGRAM
Fair Finance International
Filipino American Coalition for Environmental Solidarity
FISH
FoE Japan
Forum for Protection of Public Interest (Pro Public)
Friends of the Earth Europe
Friends of the Earth International
Friends of the Earth US
GreenFaith
GreenFaith Japan
greenpeace indonesia
Greenpeace Thailand
Hawkmoth
Indus Consortium
Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities
International Marine Mammal Project of Earth Island Institute
JACSES
Japan Center for a Sustainable Environment and Society (JACSES)
Kiko Network
KRuHA
Leave it in the Ground Initiative (LINGO)
Love Leitrim
Mekong Watch
Milieudefensie
Mineral Inheritor Rights Association
NATIONAL HAWKER FEDERATION
Neighbors Against the Gas Plants
New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance
New Mexico Climate Justice
NGO Forum on ADB
North American Climate, Conservation and Environment(NACCE)
Oil Change International
Participatory Research & Action Network – PRAAN
Philippine Legislators committee on Population and Development Foundation, Inc.
PLCPD
Port Arthur Community Action Network(PACAN)
Putnam Progressives
Rainforest Action Network
Razom We Stand
re•generation
Reclaim Finance
ReCommon
Rhizoma Indonesia
Say No To LNG
Senik Centre Asia
Sierra Club BC
Solutions for Our Climate (SFOC)
Stand.earth
Sustainable Energy Group
Task Force Detainees of the Philippines
Terra Advocati
Texas Campaign for the Environment
The Enviro Show
Trend Asia
urgewald
Vote Climate
Wahana Lingkungan Hidup Indonesia (WALHI) / Friends of the Earth Indonesia
WALHI Papua
Walhi West Java
Waterkeepers Bangladesh
Wilderness Committee
Young Friends of the Earth Norway
198 methods
350 Bay Area Action
350 West Sound Climate Action
350.org Japan
