"China’s Clean Energy Investments Abroad Are a Boon for Climate, but Human Rights and the Environment Are a Different Story", Inside Climate News, 17 December 2025

[...] CATL revised its permit to use less water and lower its expected emissions of a hazardous chemical.

[...] activists have been placing air monitors around the area to measure baselines before CATL begins production. Already, they have registered spikes in fine-particle pollution that they said have coincided with events at some of the other plants already operating.

In August, local authorities sanctioned SEMCORP [...] after the plant exceeded its permitted air emissions for nitrogen oxides, total volatile organic compounds and dichloromethane, a possible carcinogen, according to a county government order. [...] The order said a forensic expert determined the concentrations of the chemicals did not exceed health limit values.

SEMCORP did not reply to requests for comment.

CATL had initially filed a permit that would allow it to release high levels of NMP into the air, but has since revised its plans to reduce its expected emissions significantly. Instead of processing the chemical on site [...] it will send it to a supplier elsewhere in the country.

[...] public relations and communications manager for CATL in Hungary, said the company has adopted a technology [...] to reduce water use. The factory, she said, would contribute to Europe’s “green transition.”

The company also said it was government authorities, not CATL, that decided to close the regional rail line.

[...] a public affairs manager for the company, said the plant would have little to zero emissions of NMP. [...]

“This debate should primarily be done between the governmental authorities and the public,” [...]