A group of 44 civil society organizations and climate movement platforms from 18 countries has called on Japan to stop financing the Matarbari Coal-Fired Power Plant Project Phase 2.
The Bangladesh Working Group on External Debt (BWGED) sent a letter in this regard to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and President of Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) Shinichi Kitaoka via email recently, reads a press release.
In the letter, the forum of progressive development activists and organizations from all over Bangladesh raised serious human rights and environmental concerns regarding the power plant in Matarbari of Cox's Bazar district.
Greenpeace, 350.org, Friends of the Earth, NGO Forum on ADB, Oil Change International, CLEAN Bangladesh, and JACSES Japan also signed the letter, among others.
The group also argued that Bangladesh is already burdened with power overcapacity and only 43 percent utilization. It said the nation paid around $1.1 billion to idle plants as capacity payment in the 2018-19 fiscal year.
Additional power capacity will lead Bangladesh towards financial disaster as the Covid-19 pandemic has already caused a drastic reduction in electricity demand, the letter reads.
Bangladesh requires around $8 billion for post-coronavirus economic recovery and has already sought $4.5 billion in loans from foreign donors, the press release reads, adding that $1 billion of the loans have been sought from Jica.
