G-bio Initiative's response
[Japanese-to-English translation: Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]
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We are committed to socially and environmentally responsible fuel procurement throughout our supply chain, with G-Bio Ishinomaki Sue as the main power generation company.
In addition, this biomass liquid fuel power generation project is being promoted based on the feed-in tariff system for renewable energy.
The fuel to be used in this project must be certified by an international third-party certification authority designated by the Japanese government as to the social responsibility of the entire supply chain, from the production of the fuel, including land use, to the use of the fuel in the power plant.
Therefore, we do not believe in what is stated in the request, where "occupying so much land for Japan's electricity is a form of colonialism."
Moreover, the request letter from FoE Japan, an international environmental NGO, contains a number of points that are based on factual errors, including the area of afforestation.
FoE Japan cites "growing Pongamia originated in India for fuel" and "planting a single alien species has a major negative impact on the region's indigenous ecosystems" as one of the grounds for its "request to stop" the power station.
In fact, however, Pongamia is a pantropical plant that grows naturally in a very wide range of subtropical and tropical regions. In addition to African countries, it is widely distributed in Taiwan, southern China, India, ASEAN countries, Micronesia, Australia, and Polynesia. It is also not alien to the afforested areas.
For an explanation of the characteristics of pantropical plants, the Sasakawa Peace Foundation's Ocean Policy Research Institute has published an excellent article on pantropical plants. Please read the article and understand the characteristics of the pantropical plants before deciding whether FoE Japan's assertion that Pongamia is originally from India and is an invasive species in the cultivated areas is correct or not.
Sasakawa Peace Foundation's Ocean Policy Research Institute: Pantropical Plants
https://www.spf.org/en/opri/newsletter/120_2.html
Pongamia is widely known as "Kuroyona" in the Ryukyu Islands and is also a tree that is planted in Okinawa Prefecture for purposes including green manure, windbreaks, and tide-break forests.
Forest Resources Research Center, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Department, Okinawa Prefecture
https://www.pref.okinawa.jp/site/norin/shinrinken/kikaku/yuyou-detail/kuroyona.html
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In addition to the description of the Pongamia plantation project, there are many other factual errors in the contents of the request letter from FoE Japan. It is presumed that these factual errors are based on the questions raised by Tomo Iwabuchi, a member of the Communist Party, in a Committee of Economy, Trade and Industry, the House of Councillors on 20 May this year, to request the revocation of the FIT certification of G-Bio Ishinomaki Sue Power Plant.
Our opinions on the questions raised by Tomo Iwabuchi are posted on the G-Bio Ishinomaki Sue Power Plant website. Please read the following link and see if the claims made by FoE Japan and the members of the Japanese Communist Party are based on fact or not.
◎Our opinions on a Diet discussion concerning the G-Bio Ishinomaki Sue Power Plant