Inside Climate News (Planet China Series)

The Battery Boom and Its Backlash in Hungary: A Community’s Fight Against CATL’s European Ambition

In a cramped community center on a cold, dark evening, residents of Mikepércs, Hungary, gathered to voice their concerns about a proposed industrial development. The audience endured presentations on the upcoming cluster of battery factories nearby, listening to descriptions of hazardous chemicals, massive water withdrawals, and energy demands—before shifting in their chairs, restless.

“What if the chemicals leak?” asked one woman. “What’s in it for the politicians in their ‘velvet chairs’?” demanded another. A third warned of a Soviet-era legacy of industrial pollution. Then a woman tearfully recounted that the factories’ smokestacks and toxic materials were just one mile from her daughter’s kindergarten. “Please stand up for yourselves,” she urged the crowd of 50, urging them to spread the word.

This outcry centered on the planned expansion of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. (CATL), the world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) battery manufacturer, whose $1.2 billion factory complex in Debrecen, Hungary, is nearing completion. The industrial park, spanning 546 acres, already hosts CATL and several Chinese-owned battery-part suppliers, alongside a South Korean firm. A second Chinese-owned factory is under construction nearby. The surge in investment—part of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s goal to make Hungary a European battery hub—has drawn $17 billion in pledged Chinese investments, according to data from Johns Hopkins University’s Net Zero Industrial Policy Lab.

Global Ambition, Local Anxiety

While CATL’s factories could position Hungary as a clean-energy pivot in Central Europe, they have sparked widespread backlash over public health and environmental risks.

• Eva Kozma and her Mikepércs Mothers for the Environment Association—formed in 2022 after CATL announced its plans—have emerged as vocal opponents. Kozma, a community activist, has documented pollution events, scrutinized factory permits, and filed a lawsuit against CATL’s initial water-use permit, which was later revised to reduce emissions of hazardous chemicals.

• Environmental concerns include heavy metals and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP), a compound the EU has linked to fetal harm. Greenpeace Hungary found high NMP levels in wastewater near a South Korean-owned battery plant outside Budapest, with investigative reports documenting spills and air releases.

• Water scarcity is another issue: Debrecen’s water authority warned in 2023 that groundwater sources could deplete within years due to industrial expansion, including CATL’s projected daily water use of 523,000 gallons (two-thirds from drinking water).

China’s Clean Energy Push Abroad

CATL’s Hungarian project is part of a global wave of Chinese investment in clean-energy manufacturing. Since 2022, Chinese firms have pledged $200 billion for EV batteries, solar panels, and refineries across every continent except Antarctica, according to the Net Zero Industrial Policy Lab. Hungary ranks third globally in such investments, after Indonesia and Morocco.

Proponents argue these investments narrow the climate-finance gap: China’s clean-energy exports cut global emissions by 1% in 2024 (equivalent to Spain’s annual output). However, critics highlight human rights and environmental violations:

• Labor and pollution issues: Chinese nickel smelters in Indonesia have spewed pollutants, while Zambian mining spills have contaminated waterways. Journalists and activists reporting these issues face surveillance and intimidation.

• Forced labor allegations: Chinese solar and battery supply chains have been linked to Xinjiang’s forced labor campaigns, dismissed by Beijing as “lies” to suppress Chinese industry.

Hungary’s Authoritarian Model of Investment

Orbán’s government has accelerated CATL’s project through lax oversight and fast-tracked permits, eliminating Hungary’s environment ministry in 2010 and cracking down on dissent. Community groups like Kozma’s face smear campaigns: state-backed media labeled them “foreign agents” and “traitors.”

Kozma’s defiance persists: “The authorities want you to believe you’re small, that you can’t do anything,” she told the crowd. “I will defend you.” Her group has since secured a permit revision for CATL, reduced water use, and installed air monitors to track pollution spikes coinciding with nearby plant operations.

The Future of Clean Energy, and Its Trade-Offs

Hungary’s battery boom underscores tensions in China’s global green transition: while these investments drive decarbonization, they risk undermining local sovereignty, labor rights, and environmental safeguards.

Experts warn that host nations must “bargain hard” to secure sustainable development. In Brazil, for example, Chinese firms improved labor practices after complaints. In Hungary, however, Orbán’s autocratic tactics—designating factory sites without local input, suppressing opposition, and prioritizing industrial growth over public health—have created a “high-risk model” for clean energy, according to researchers at ELTE University.

As Mikepércs residents wait for elections in April 2026, Kozma remains resolute: “I’m doing it for them [my children]—at least I can look them in the eye and say, ‘I tried.’”

The story of CATL’s Hungarian factory, then, is not just a local dispute. It is a microcosm of a global race to decarbonize—one where clean energy ambitions collide with environmental, social, and political risks.

This article is part of the Climate Desk collaboration and originally appeared on Inside Climate News as part of its Planet China series.