Setting fears over $6 bn Indonesia EV battery venture: NGOs
by AFP Employees Writers
Jakarta (AFP) June 26, 2025
Environmental teams raised issues Thursday over a $6 billion Indonesian EV battery megaproject backed by Chinese language large CATL which is ready to open on a once-pristine island, as Jakarta exploits its big provide of nickel.
Indonesia is each the world’s largest nickel producer and residential to the biggest-known reserves, and a 2020 export ban has spurred a home industrial increase.
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto will inaugurate the venture — additionally backed by China’s Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt and Indonesia’s state-owned Antam — within the east of Halmahera in Indonesia’s Maluku islands on Sunday.
The complicated will embody a course of from nickel mining to manufacturing of cathodes, state information company Antara reported.
However NGOs say Indonesia and the Chinese language corporations concerned haven’t given assurances about environmental protections on the web site, positioned simply kilometres from an enormous industrial park the place spikes in air pollution and deforestation have been reported.
“CATL, Huayou Cobalt, PT Antam… should decide to respecting the rights of native communities and the surroundings earlier than breaking floor,” stated Brad Adams, government director at Local weather Rights Worldwide, in a press release.
“Communities are repressed, forests are cleared, and air pollution goes unaddressed with impunity. This can be a likelihood for the Prabowo authorities to indicate that it has realized from these failures.”
The presidential workplace didn’t instantly reply to an AFP request for remark.
Halmahera hosts the world’s largest nickel mine by manufacturing Weda Bay, the place operations have grown and sparked stories of widespread environmental harm.
Greenpeace Indonesia stated the brand new venture carried “nice duties” and the surroundings and locals “should not take a again seat” to powering electrical autos.
“If the surroundings and the rights of our most susceptible individuals are not prioritised now… we are going to all pay a excessive worth via worsening biodiversity and local weather crises,” Arie Rompas, forest marketing campaign workforce chief at Greenpeace, instructed AFP.
A CRI report this month warned the Indonesian authorities was permitting environmental harm to go unchecked round Weda Bay.
An AFP report final month detailed how the house of the nomadic Hongana Manyawa tribe was being eaten away by the mine.
jfx/mtp
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