Publication Southeast Asia - Socio-ecological Transformation - COP26 - Green New Deal Fast and Furious for Future

The dark side of electric battery vehicle components and their impacts in Indonesia

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Currently, electric vehicles are widely regarded as an effective strategy for reducing the carbon emissions that cause both the climate crisis as well as air and noise pollution. Nickel is one of the main minerals in lithium batteries, without which electric vehicles are unthinkable, and Indonesia has some of the largest nickel deposits in the world. This means that efforts to overcome the climate crisis will be carried out by extracting minerals, primarily from Indonesia. It is therefore vital to inspect and supervise the battery-grade nickel production process in accordance with internationally accepted environmental and social standards.

Fast and Furious for Future, a new publication produced by the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung’s Climate Justice Dialogue Programme, maps out the actors in Indonesia’s battery-grade nickel industry, beginning with the shareholders of smelter operators and ranging all the way to where products have the potential to move in the global supply chain. The potential environmental impacts of planned deep-sea tailings disposal (DSTD) are also explored. Lastly, the publication reveals findings from the field regarding the impacts of mining activities and the nickel industry, which are currently in operation and could potentially be amplified by future developments in the battery-grade nickel industry.