Japan Press Weekly

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2020 January 29 - February 4 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Environmental activists protest against construction of palm oil-fueled power plant

In protest against the construction of a palm oil-fueled power plant, environmental activists on January 29 assembled on the streets near the venue of the major travel agency HIS’s annual general meeting of shareholders.

An HIS subsidiary is now building a thermal power station in Miyagi’s Kakuda City, and the plant will use imported palm oil for fuel.

However, the production of palm oil has created environmental destruction. Large areas of rainforest and peat land in southeast Asian nations have been turned into oil palm plantations, which is criticized as causing a decline in orangutan populations and a massive release of carbon dioxide.

Speaking to shareholders going to the meeting, Mitsuta Kanna of the international environmental NGO Friends of the Earth (Foe) Japan said that a huge amount of carbon dioxide is discharged through the production of palm oil and thus the construction of the palm oil-fired power station in Kakuda should be cancelled.

A pedestrian said that there seems to be no need for the palm oil-fueled power plant. A male shareholder expressed his disapproval of the construction project with its excessively large carbon footprint.

Past related articles:
> 148,000 signatures submitted to oppose construction of palm oil power plant in Miyagi [July 31, 2019]
> Planned construction of biomass power plant to burn imported palm oil under fire [May 21, 2019]