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On June 29, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) announced that it has decided to provide project financing of US $199 million to the Waitsia 2 gas extraction project in Australia. The project is co-financed with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC). We released a joint statement in response to the decision to finance this project, which violates the G7 Leaders' Statement and the Japanese government's 2050 net-zero target.

On June 17, Mitsubishi Corporation signed an EPC (engineering, procurement, and construction) contract for Quang Trach 1 coal-fired power plant in Vietnam, despite having a policy not to enter into any new coal-fired power generation businesses. We condemn this decision and urge Mitsubishi Corporation to withdraw from Quang Trach 1 and also from Vung Ang 2, a coal-fired power generation project the company is now working towards construction in the same country.

At its AGM today in Tokyo, 23% of shareholders issued a major climate warning to MUFG management by voting in favor of a resolution filed by NGOs, and three individual NGO shareholders affiliated with calling on the bank to adopt and disclose a plan to align its financing and investments with the Paris Agreement.

A comparison of Japan’s three megabanks, reveals Mizuho is moving ahead of their peers on climate, but their revised climate-related policies are not yet aligned with Paris. The analysis was conducted by 350.org Japan, Kiko Network, and Rainforest Action Network, and comes amidst the banks’ shareholder meetings which started last week.

On June 17, the Japanese government revised its policy on providing support for overseas coal-fired power projects in response to the G7 Leaders’ Statement. However, the Indramayu coal project in Indonesia and the Matarbari coal project Phase 2 in Bangladesh are excluded from this new policy. Will the Japanese government not keep the promise of the G7 Leaders' Statement?