The groups that are part of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice, among them Earth in Brackets and Friends of the Earth International held a demonstration today inside the Military Headquarters, where the UN talks are taking place, to demand an end to the funding of dirty energies.

The news that Japan considers the funds granted to a coal plant in Indonesia as part of their climate finance, arguing that this plant uses new technology that according to them is less polluting, outraged the organizations demanding climate justice.

The plant in question is called “Cirebon” and just like two other similar plants in Indonesia, it was financed by Japan using climate finance money. Part of Japan´s argument is that this new technology is more expensive than Indonesia could have afforded, and therefore, pollution is lower when compared to conventional technology.

The issue of climate finance is key at the COP in Lima and social organizations consider it absurd that the funding of mechanisms to exploit fossil fuels, such as coal, can be considered climate finance.

Climate finance by developed countries is supposed to help developing countries adapt to climate change and reduce their emissions through the implementation of new, non-polluting technologies. But coal exploitation is a high emitter of greenhouse gases. According to the social organizations, in this way Japan is seriously threatening the legitimacy of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and especially the Green Climate Fund.