Japan’s Dirty Secret: - World’s top fossil fuel financier is fueling climate chaos and undermining energy security

The authors are grateful for feedback from the following reviewers: Gerry Arances of the Center for Energy, Ecology and Development, Dipti Bhatnagar of Justiça Ambiental, Ayumi Fukakusa and Hozue Hatae of Friends of the Earth Japan, Kate DeAngelis of Friends of the Earth US, Yuki Tanabe of Japan Center for a Sustain- able Environment and Society (JACSES), and Satoko Endo of Mekong Watch. [...] Japan is also the top financier of upstream fossil fuel projects despite interna- tional recognition that investment in new gas and oil fields and coal mines undermines our ability to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. [...] Japan’s fossil fuel finance undermines a just energy transition The Japanese government has been leading the drive to expand gas consumption in Asia and is the world’s leading financier of gas infrastructure globally. [...] This process requires a lot of market, Japan announced in May 2021 that it energy, creating even more emissions.10 would provide $10 billion for transition efforts in the ASEAN region, including LNG projects, The current energy crisis has been aggravated by through the Asia Energy Transition Initiative.14 the war in Ukraine and the slow global transition to clean energy. [...] gas growth in developing countries, notably in In Africa, fossil fuel production has historically South and Southeast Asia, “putting a dent in the entailed poor contract terms, industry-friendly credentials of gas as a transition fuel.”12 subsidies and royalty frameworks, debt traps, corruption, and the outsized ownership of fossil Japan’s interest in advancing gas use, especially in resources by.