the soil polluting the ocean and hurting the livelihoods of local fishermen marks said the country needs to significantly strengthen its environmental safeguards he said it generally needs to strengthen its oversight of these mines widodo banned exports of nickel ore in 2020 but allowed exports of higher value nickel products forcing companies to process and manufacture onshore however the introduction of a job creation law in 2020 may allow for strategic projects such as mining to skip environmental requirements said aditya mahalana a jakartabased senior researcher at the international council on clean transportation risk for tesla waste management is also important for ev investors as battery makers need to dump byproducts in a contained area with limited ecosystem damage said mckinsey companys gupta deepsea tailings waste disposal and air pollution linked to nickel mining are other challenges for ev manufacturers seeking to prove their green credentials said albidin linda climate change and sustainability partner at consultancy ey indonesia mining is an industry that is prone to sustainability risks and reputation risks in which heightened efforts to alleviate these potential problems are needed by corporates that are making sustainability a business priority linda said with a relatively unstable environmental protection framework and regulatory oversight operation in indonesia might become a heightened risk for tesla and ev manufacturers he added while malaysia and thailand are the regions traditional auto manufacturing hubs indonesia is its largest vehicle market and is along major shipping and supply lines for importing materials and exporting final products said nicholas wagner a programme officer at the international renewable energy agency in bonn but new technology from foreign investment must also be accompanied by relevant training for workers to ensure the longterm sustainability of the ev business he added bill sullivan senior foreign counsel and a mining expert at christian teo partners in jakarta said a lack of regulatory and fiscal certainty owing to the governments tendency to change the rules of the game could hinder major ev investments in addition low transparency and a wholly unsatisfactory court system leaves foreign investors at a huge disadvantage in any legal dispute with a wellconnected and wellresourced local party sullivan warned foreign investors in indonesian ev manufacturing need to make sure as part of their environmental social and governance responsibilities that metals come from mines that minimise their impact on the environment sullivan said ev makers looking to invest in indonesia are likely to be keen to avoid the backlash electronics companies have faced over the last decade when linked with the environmental destruction caused by unregulated tin mining on the bangkabelitung islands we really are in a race against the clock to save the climate and one leg of that race is to electrify everything but it mustnt be at the expense of human rights forests and clean water said arie rompas a forest campaigner for greenpeace indonesia in jakarta read alsohow us electric vehicle subsidy rules impact europehmsi plans 5 product launches for