U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is not a fan of the Biden administration’s climate legislation known as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), describing it as a “green scam.” Trump has promised to repeal it, which will undoubtedly be welcome news in Indonesia.
Indonesia is home to the world’s largest nickel reserves, a critical ingredient for manufacturing EV batteries. But the IRA aims to limit China’s role in the battery supply chain, presenting a huge headache for Indonesian nickel suppliers given the outsized role that Chinese smelters play in the country’s mining sector.