Court rejects Peruvian farmer’s case against German firm – but opens new door for climate justice

While a German court ruled for the first time on Wednesday that major carbon emitters could be held accountable for the damage they have caused, it dismissed the claim by a Peruvian farmer that a flood risk to his home in the mountains of Huaraz due to greenhouse gas emissions by a German power company should warrant compensation.

Seeking to establish that polluters can be held liable for transboundary harm, the farmer and mountain guide Saul Luciano Lliuya had filed the case against the German power utility Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk. RWE is among the top three carbon dioxide emitters in the European Union power sector.

The highly anticipated order by the higher regional court in Hamm, Germany acknowledged the climate dimensions of the case and the inequality between the Global North and South and the fact that Lliuya could not prevent the threat to his community as caused by other actors, said senior attorney with Centre for International Environmental Law Sebastien Duyck.

Climate accountability

Despite the appeal being dismissed, lawyers and activists declared that the case sets a groundbreaking precedent that could have implications for over 40 ongoing climate damages cases worldwide as well as future cases. They said it would herald an era of climate accountability.

The judgement “shatters the wall of...

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