15 November, 2025 admin 0 Comments 0 categories


Protesters in Pokemon costumes stomped around the United Nations climate conference on Friday to send a message to Japan: end financing of coal and natural gas projects across Southeast Asia and other regions of the Global South.
The Stop Japan’s Dirty Energy Plans protest aligned with the first of two thematic days with a focus on energy during the annual climate conference known as Cop30, held this year in Belem on the edge of the Brazilian Amazon.

Organisers of the protest said the investments were a major blind spot for Japan, typically a regional voice in climate negotiations that often touts itself as a decarbonisation leader in Asia.

“Japan is actually delaying the fossil fuel phase-out across Asia” by funding energy projects, mainly liquefied natural gas developments, in countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, said Hiroki Osada with Friends of the Earth Japan, one of the protest organisers.
“It’s so important for our Global South comrades to voice their concerns in Belem, so that they can actually demand the Japanese government to do something about this,” he said.
An activist peeks out of a Pikachu costume at the Cop30 summit on Friday. Photo: AP
An activist peeks out of a Pikachu costume at the Cop30 summit on Friday. Photo: AP

The government-owned Japan Bank for International Cooperation financed US$6.4 billion in loans for coal projects and US$874 million in loans for gas projects from 2016 to 2024, according to a 2025 study by the Philippines-based research and advocacy organisation Centre for Energy, Ecology and Development based on public government and banking data.



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