A German court Wednesday dismissed a decade-old lawsuit filed by a Peruvian farmer who charged that a German energy giant owes him money because its greenhouse gas emissions have helped put his mountain village at risk of flooding from melting glaciers.
The case, Luciano Lliuya v. RWE AG, was filed in 2015, pitting Peruvian farmer and mountain guide Saúl Luciano Lliuya against RWE, Germany’s largest electricity provider. The Hamm Higher Regional Court dismissed Lliuya’s case, finding that the risk of flooding at his house was not enough for the case to proceed. It also ruled out the chance of appeal.
But in a legal first, Presiding Judge Rolf Meyer did find that under German law it is possible that a polluter may be ordered to cut emissions or bear the costs of climate damages.
That makes the verdict a “milestone” that will provide a “tailwind to climate lawsuits against fossil fuel companies,” said Lliuya’s attorney, Roda Verheyen. “For the first time in history,” Verheyen added, “a high court in Europe has ruled that large emitters can be held responsible for the consequences of their greenhouse gas emissions.”
