FOE: Environmental groups protest Japan's role in Batang power plant project

(Mar. 30, 2016) -- On the eve of the April 6 deadline to secure financing for the controversial Batang coal-fired power plant in Indonesia, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is set to arrive in Washington, D.C. this Thursday.

In addition to the potential Japan Bank for International Cooperation -- JBIC -- financing of the Batang coal project, Japan has a long and increasingly isolated history of supporting unnecessary and dangerous coal projects both domestically and around the globe, in contrast to the clean energy momentum growing worldwide and contradicting the Paris climate accord agreed by Japan in December.

Japan is by far the worst offender in financing coal power projects among G7 countries.

Friends of the Earth (FOE), the Sierra Club, Oil Change International, and other allies will protest outside the Japanese Embassy to call out Japan and JBIC for their continued and unnecessary financing of coal projects and to highlight the human rights abuses associated with the Batang coal project. (ends)