Japan Banks Urged to Stop Supporting Coal-Fired Power Stations

Japan Banks Urged to Stop Supporting Coal-Fired Power Stations
by -
IMNA
Representatives Protest in Japan
Representatives Protest in Japan

Request letters were handed in to the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), urging them to withdraw their support for coal-fired power plant projects in Burma.

Representatives from regions where the proposed coal-fire projects are to be constructed went to the JBIC and JICA offices in Japan to submit the letters on 26 and 27 November.

According to the representatives the letters had been written after consultations with people who will be affected by the proposed power plants and community based organisations in the affected areas.

72 civil society organisations also supported the petition letters.

The regions where the coal-fire plants have been planned include: the Anndin area of Ye Township in Mon State; the Nga-Yot Kaung area of Nga Pu Township in Irrawaddy Division; and the Thar Ya Bon area of Tenasserim Township in Tenasserim Division.

People local to the proposed coal-fired power stations and civil society organisations are very concerned because JICA were advisers for a draft document on the future of electricity generation in Burma, which recommends that 33 per cent of the electricity used in Burma should be generated by coal-fired power plants by 2030.

Whilst meeting with JICA Mi Ni Mar Oo, a representative of Anndin Village, said: “The voices of locals from here [Anndin] are completely against the project. The banks and other stakeholders, assisting the Toyo-Thai Company should listen to the locals’ voices.”

The letters to JBIC and JICA stated: “Any kind of coal fired power plant should only be implemented after meeting with the locals.”

Affected locals said that the companies have already signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) and agreements with the Union Government and are trying to go ahead with the projects and implement them without approval from the locals.

The statement said: “If they go ahead without the agreement of the locals and implement the projects, they will be violating their own regulations concerning society and the environment.”

The government has already signed MoUs and memorandums of agreement (MoA) for 11 proposed coal-fired power plants in Burma.

Edited in English by Mark Inkey for BNI

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