Vanessa Bushschluter
BBC News
Reuters
Saúl Laciano Lliuya says that the water in Lake Parca Cocha will increase, putting his hometown at risk
A German court has rejected a lawsuit filed by Peruvian farmers against German energy giant RWE in its long-awaited ruling.
Saul Luciano Ruria claimed that the company’s global emissions contributed to the melting of Peruvian glaciers, threatening his hometown of Huaraz with floods.
He was seeking 17,000 euros (£14,250) in compensation – the money he said he would use to pay for flood defense projects to protect the city.
However, on Wednesday, the German city of Ham, a top district court stopped the case from progressing further, excluded the appeal and put an end to Lliuya’s 10-year legal battle.
RWE said it was not active in Peru and questioned why it was chosen.
He also pointed out plans to abolish coal-fired power plants and become carbon neutral by 2040.
In ruling Wednesday, the judge believed the risk of flooding on Lliuya’s property was not sufficient for the case to proceed.
But with the climate group welcoming it as a victory, they said energy companies could be held responsible for the costs caused by carbon emissions.
The total requested by Lliuya was very low, but the incident has become a celebrity for climate activists.
The 44-year-old Mountain Guide and Farmer said they brought the incident because they had seen firsthand the rise in temperature melting the glacier near Huaraz.
He said that as a result, Lake Parcacocha, above the city, now has four times the water than in 2003, and residents like him are at risk of flooding.
He argued that the emissions caused by the RWE contributed to rising temperatures in Peru’s mountain regions, requiring German companies to pay for building flood defenses.
Lliuya also said he chose the company as a 2013 database tracking historic emissions from major fossil fuel producers listed German energy giants as one of Europe’s biggest polluters.
Reuters
Lliuya says he saw firsthand the impacts of climate change as a guide to the mountains
Lliuya’s original lawsuit was rejected by a German lower court in 2015, with the judge arguing that a single company cannot be held liable for climate change.
But with a surprising twist, Lliuya won a lawsuit with a judge in the High District Court in 2017.
His lawyer previously claimed that RWE is in charge of 0.5% of global CO2 emissions and demanded that the energy company pay damages for the proportional share of the cost of building Huaraz’s $3.5 million defense.
Reuters
Lliuya’s lawyer, Roda Verheyen, celebrated the court’s decision
Germanwatch, an environmental NGO that supported Lliuya’s case, celebrated the court’s ruling by saying it “made legal history.”
“The court dismissed certain claims, but finding flood risks in Luciano Ruria’s home was not high enough – for the first time acknowledged that major emitters can be held liable under German civil law for risks resulting from climate change,” he said in the statement.
The group said the decision is expected to have a positive impact on similar cases in other countries.
