The 2004 storms and floods in Japan highlights the increasing intensity of storms expected as a result of climate change. They caused the deaths of more than 200 people and flooded more than 20,000 houses in Niigata prefecture. 13,000 households were ordered to evacuate. In one week more than 49 cms of rain fell in Niigata prefecture - nearly one-fifth of the annual average.
Urgent action by JBIC and other official Japanese Export Credit
Agencies to restrict the increase in global temperatures is an urgent
environmental and moral imperative. If all countries take urgent action
then it is possible that mean global temperature rise can be kept below
2 degrees celcius above the pre-industrial level. Even at this level
millions of people will be severely affected by the environmental
effects of the temperature increase, with the major impacts being
largely on the poorest and developing countries, particularly in
sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America.
Asia and its peoples are among the most vulnerable to the impacts of
climate change, with hundreds of millions of people living in low lying
coastal areas. JBIC as a major source of funding for dirty energy will
bear a direct responsibility for the predicted effects shown below.
The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) is the largest
lender of overseas aid in the Asia Pacific region. And, as such has a
central role in the direction the economies of the developing countries
in the region. The Japanese government provides 100% of JBIC’s capital.
While this influence could be used to promote sustainable development
the vast majority of JBIC funds are used to fund projects that are
socially and environmentally damaging. In the energy area only 12.5% of
JBIC funds go to renewable energy projects while more than 87.5% goes
to fund fossil fuel plants that continue to create dangerous climate
change.
JBIC’s fossil fuel bias
The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) is one of the
largest public financial institutions in the world and provides the
most public financing for fossil fuel power plants, especially for
coal-fi red plants in Asia.
Between 1993 and 2002 JBIC loaned approximately US$7.6 billion for a
total of 53 fossil fuel power generation projects, with most of the
loans being for 32 coal projects.
As a result, Japan is one of the world’s largest CO2
emission-contributors in developing countries. This is in complete
contradiction to what Japan, as a signatory to the UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol, asserts. It is
hampering appropriate technology and financial transfer by financing
dirty energy projects in developing countries .
Between 1993 and 2002, only six renewable energy projects in the
following countries have received support from JBIC and these were –
the Philippines (two geothermal and one wind project), Indonesia (two
small hydro projects), and Brazil (one wind project). The total
expenditures for renewables projects for the years 1993-2002 accounted
for just 3.3% of the total energy and infrastructure expenditures.