Fossil of the Day: Today it’s up to Japan
The Land of the Rising Sun uses funds for renewable energy to build coal plants Today, like every day, the “Fossil of the Day” has been named publicly at COP20.
By Camilla Forti e Silvia Debiasi
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The fossil of the day is the country or the countries that are supposed to contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and who did not.
Japan was the winner of this prestigious award today, for using the money of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) to finance gas and coal plants in Indonesia. The GCF is a fund designed to help developing countries to tackle the climate crisis. But apparently it is not.
The justification given? The new power plants pollute 20% less than the previous one and apparently some people believe that financing these projects means to help the environment.
The fact that the money used come from GCF, designed to carry out the actions on climate, demonstrates a twisted view of the concept of development, in addition to a lack of foresight, since the future increase in the price of coal and the worsening weather are not taken into account.
Local people already complain about the heavy pollution of rivers, which are killing the fish banks from which their livelihoods depend. This would not have happened if Japan had used renewable energy, the main objective for which the fund was created.
Japan is therefore the champion of un-sustainable development for today, after logging in the funds with enthusiasm, and then proving not to be the bearer of values that everybody hoped.
