In line with the Climate Action Summit held at the United Nations headquarters in New York, a protest against Japan, which continues to generate electricity using coal, was held on the 23rd. While the sense of crisis about climate change has been widely shared around the world, Japan has been pointed out that the response has been delayed.
Regarding coal-fired power plants that emit large amounts of carbon dioxide, the UN Secretary General Guterres repeatedly asked member states to stop new construction after 2020. In Europe, an increasing number of countries are launching zero future operation.
On the other hand, 50 new coal-fired power plants are planned to be added or expanded in Japan after 2012. In April this year, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), funded by the government, announced a loan of up to about $ 1.2 billion for Vietnam's coal-fired power generation project.
About 20 people from the environmental NPO “Oil Change International” attended the protest. On the streets of New York, he raised a 4-meter-high balloon that imitated the smiling Prime Minister Shinzo Abe standing on a coal bucket.
“The only country that is still stuck to coal-fired power plants is Japan,” said Alex Ducas, chief analyst of the organization. Shinjiro Koizumi, Minister of Environment, said, “It's sexy to tackle climate change,” he said, “I want to say that nothing is as sexy as coal.” (New York = Manabu Fujiwara)