Fossil of the Day: Japan
For financing destruction, blocking justice, and selling false hope at COP30.
COP30, Belem – Today’s Fossil goes to Japan – for three strikes against climate justice. Three reasons that cut straight to the heart of why COP30 has to fight so hard to deliver truth:
1. Pushing Fossil Lifelines
Inside its glossy pavilion, Japan promotes carbon capture and storage (CCS), hydrogen, and ammonia co-firing – all dressed up as “solutions.” These are not climate solutions – they are smokescreens. Techno-fixes to extend fossil fuel life, not end it.
2. Violating Indigenous Rights
Japan is bankrolling gas mega-projects in Australia – from Scarborough to the Burrup Hub – that threaten lands, waters, and culture.
- No Free, Prior and Informed Consent: Indigenous communities were pressured into silence through gag orders.
- Cultural Destruction: Rock art older than the pyramids is being eroded by emissions.
- Export Colonialism: Japan over-contracts gas, then re-sells it across Asia – displacing renewables and sabotaging the Just Transition demanded by communities across the region.
Since 2008, Japan and Korea have poured US$20.5 billion into Australian gas. Japan’s export credit agency alone backs 64% of that, underwriting climate chaos.
3. Undermining a Just Transition
Japan continues to resist efforts to embed justice, equity, and people-centred transition planning under the UNFCCC. At COP30, Japan is blocking efforts to enshrine justice in the transition. It supports the “do nothing till 2026” option – refusing to back institutional arrangements for equity or community voice. They are not even trying to hide their dislike of Just Transition being discussed at the UNFCCC.
In short: Japan is violating Indigenous rights, blocking justice in negotiations, and selling fossil-fuel lifelines as “solutions.”
That’s why Japan takes today’s Fossil of the Day.
Japan, your fossil agenda is showing.
-ENDS-
Notes to Editors
- Photos and video of today’s award ceremony: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1LwC32eaSkNP9axPKJGAzjV66heQd6Wlm?usp=drive_link
- Fossil of the Day happens every day at 6pm in the COP30 Blue Zone, Zone D, Action Area 1. (This is near the delegation offices and before you get to Meeting Room 1.)
- The Fossil of the Day awards (which now include Ray of the Day and the Solidarity for Justice Award) were first presented at the climate talks in 1999, in Bonn, initiated by the German NGO Forum. During United Nations climate change negotiations (www.unfccc.int), members of the Climate Action Network (CAN), vote for countries judged to have done their ‘best’ to block progress in the negotiations in the last days of talks.
Contact: Attila Kulcsar, CAN International, akulcsar@climatenetwork.org, +44 7472 124872 (WhatsApp)