In one week, on 1 November, the Mekong-Japan Summit, an annual meeting of Asian governments from the Mekong region and Japan, will take place in Bangkok. On the margins of the Summit, Japanese companies are expected to announce new business partnerships, and a large new coal plant in Vietnam could be one of them.
The science is abundantly clear that we need to keep fossil fuels in the ground to ensure a future for our planet [1], and that means we can’t let any new coal plants be built anywhere in the world. So the Vung Ang 2 coal-fired power station in Central Vietnam – currently planned for financing by Japan’s biggest banks – is a definite no-go.
Our work exposing Japan’s banks’ major funding of coal has already contributed to moving Mitsubishi UFJ – Japan’s biggest bank and the eighth largest commercial bank in the world – to commit to a no-coal policy [2] while other major banks have promised to restrict coal lending, and now is our chance to hold them to their word.
Delivering thousands of signatures before the possible announcement could be the last push needed to get Japan’s banks across the line and stop funding coal across the globe.
Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho, Sumitomo-Mitsui Banking Corporation, and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Japan’s megabanks, have all published policies promising to restrict their finance for coal, and signed on to the UN Principles for Responsible Banking, in which they commit to “align their business practices with the Paris Agreement”. But now they are in line to do the exact opposite. We cannot let them greenwash their way into a new coal plant. Add you name to the petition today.
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