RWE challenges court’s evidence order in lawsuit with Peruvian farmer

German utility RWE has contested a court’s evidence order from November 2017 which says that a consultant shall assess whether greenhouse gas emissions caused by the country’s largest coal user have contributed to the melting of a glacier in Peru, which now threatens the home of plaintiff Saul Luciano Lliuya, website umwelt-energie-report.de (U+E) writes. RWE told U+E in a letter that there were still  “considerable judicial doubts about the legitimacy, conclusiveness, and reasonable justification of the lawsuit backed by [NGO] Germanwatch and other interest groups”. The energy company argues that, according to German law, a single emitter could not be held accountable for “globally effective processes like climate change”. Lliuya’s lawyer, Roda Verheyen, told U+E that the court will need to give its view by the beginning of March. The website writes that “this gives the impression that RWE intends to protract the entire lawsuit”. Lliuya’s supporter Germanwatch estimates that the consultant’s report might take up to two years to finish.

Find the article in German here.