German court to hear Peruvian farmer's climate change case against RWE

A court in Germany has agreed to hear Peruvian farmer and mountain guide Saúl Luciano Lliuya’s case against RWE, over the German utility’s contribution to climate change, NGO Germanwatch said in a press release. “It is the first time a court has acknowledged that a private company is in principal responsible for its part in causing climate damage,” the press release says. Germanwatch is supporting Lliuya in his legal battle against Germany’s largest electricity provider. The NGO says Lliuya’s case is “of great legal relevance” and has immediate implications for the legal responsibilities of all of the world’s major emitters. According to Lliuya’s lawyer, Roda Verheyen, “entering into evidentiary phase of this case is in itself already writing legal history”, as emitters could now be liable for compensation for damage caused by a warming global climate. The Peruvian farmer says RWE, which has been among Germany’s largest emitters for several decades, should part-finance measures to protect his village in the Andes, which is threatened by glacier-melt thought to be linked to global warming.

Read the press release in English here.

See the CLEW dossier The Energiewende and climate change for information.