Explainer: Why a Peruvian farmer's court loss may be a win for climate justice
May 28 (Reuters) - A decade-long court battle between a Peruvian farmer and German energy giant RWE (RWEG.DE), opens new tab over the company's global emissions and its impact on his hometown finally came to an end on Wednesday.
The court threw out the case without the possibility of appeal. Despite that, the farmer, his lawyers and environmentalists are hailing the ruling as an unprecedented victory for climate cases that could spur similar lawsuits.
The highland Peruvian city of Huaraz is at risk from a glacial lake outburst flood as glacial melt has caused the volume of Lake Palcacocha to increase by at least 34 times since 1970, requiring investment in dams and drainage structures.
Peruvian farmer Saul Luciano Lliuya sued German energy giant RWE, claiming it should pay for 0.5% of the flood defenses since the company emitted 0.5% of global emissions since the industrial revolution despite not having a physical presence in Peru.
The amount would have come out to about $17,500.
The court decision was based on calculating the risk Lliuya's home faced from flooding. An expert opinion found that the 30-year damage risk to the plaintiff's house was 1%. The court deemed this was not enough to take the case further.
While Lliuya's house's risk didn't pass the threshold, the court said that companies could be held liable for the impacts of their emissions.
"They really established a legal duty, a legal principle of corporate climate liability, which no court has ever done anywhere else in the world in a verdict like this," Noah Walker-Crawford, a researcher at London School of Economics, Grantham Research Institute, said in a press conference after the verdict. "So this is a really, really historic decision."
The court ruling stated that civil courts can rule on climate cases and that the German Civil Code overseeing property rights applies across borders and therefore, litigants around the world can file transnational cases against German companies.
The court noted that RWE's permits do not exempt it from liability when infringing on the rights of others and the size of its global emissions meant it had a special responsibility for consequences due to climate change.
It noted that being one of many emitters does not shield a company from liability.
The court said that the link between emissions and risks dates back to 1958, when U.S. scientist Charles Keeling published a graph of the annual variation and accumulation of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere.
It added that the 1965 Presidential SAC report that found burning fossil fuels increases atmospheric CO2 also gave companies enough information to foresee harmful consequences of emissions and bear legal responsibility for them.
It added that there is a linear causation between emissions and climate change and the complexity of climate change science does not prevent liability.
In a statement to Reuters, a spokesperson for RWE said the ruling did not set a precedent as it is understood in the UK legal system, and it added three other regional courts have taken a different legal view.
Since the case was thrown out, the court did not rule on whether and to what extent RWE could be held responsible, the statement said, adding that the company has operated in accordance with applicable laws and climate policy should be resolved at the political level.
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Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Daily Mail
Peru Two's Michaella McCollum reveals the hell that could await Brits accused of drug trafficking abroad - and why she sees them as 'victims'
Michaella McCollum has vivid memories of prison paella, and the maggots lurking within. 'I remember how I'd lay all the rice out, to see which grains I could eat and which were maggots. Back home, it was reported that I'd gone on hunger strike, but I hadn't.' She also remembers her poor mum arriving, braving corrupt prison guards and six-hour waits in the blazing Peruvian heat, with bags of food, which Michaella would fall upon. 'She'd bring a whole chicken, which I'd eat with my fingers, and there would be cockroaches climbing up onto the table and I'd just flick them away. I mean, they didn't even bother me, by then. You become so used to it. And I suppose there is a level of guilt and shame that you feel it's acceptable, even though it isn't.' The cockroaches bother her now, though. She raises her forearm. 'I've got goosebumps, just talking about them. But then... normal. It's astonishing what you adapt to, and how resilient you can be.' Even her resilience has limits, though. As one of the notorious Peru Two, Michaella served three years in a hardcore prison near Lima when she was convicted of drug smuggling. She does not quibble with the sentence, acknowledging she deserved it, but reckons today that three years was her 'top limit'. 'I could not do 20 years in a prison like that,' she says. 'I just couldn't. And that's what those girls are facing.' By 'those girls' she means the two young British women facing similar drug smuggling charges, currently locked up in prisons that must feel as far from home as hers did. The arrests of Bella May Culley, 18, and Charlotte May Lee, 21, have made global headlines in recent weeks. The cases are unrelated: Bella, from Teesside, is charged with trying to smuggle 14kg of cannabis into Georgia; while Charlotte, from Coulsdon in south London, faces similar charges in Sri Lanka relating to 46kg of synthetic drug kush – which can be 25 times more potent than opioid fentanyl. Charlotte appeared in court yesterday, handcuffed and tearful. If found guilty, both will be looking at up to 20 years behind bars. Few can possibly understand what they and their families are going through, but Northern Irish-born Michaella, who is now a 31-year-old mother to twin boys, can. She was just 19 when she made 'the greatest mistake of my life', effectively agreeing to become a drugs mule. She was arrested with 20-year-old Scot Melissa Reid, whom she had never met before their fateful trip from Ibiza to Peru. The pictures of the Peru Two as they came to be known, standing forlornly by mismatching suitcases – Michaella with her then black hair, scraped into a high, 'doughnut' bun – went round the world. An iconic illustration of how stupid, and perhaps gullible, young people can be. And now history appears to be repeating itself. Michaella says it was her mother who first heard about the arrest of Bella Culley and called her. 'The situation was almost exactly the same. Her mum had reported her missing, then it emerged that she'd been arrested. There were such parallels with my case – except it was just in a different country.' Her heart immediately went out to Bella, then to Charlotte, a former TUI air stewardess whose story emerged days later. Both women have denied the charges against them. 'I couldn't help but feel bad for them,' Michaella says. 'They are 19 and 21. Whatever they have done, it's so young to be caught up in something like this, and I know what they are going to go through. And their families. It's the worst thing anybody can have to face.' Bella's situation seems even more precarious. She told the court in Tbilisi that she was pregnant which, if true, adds a layer of horror. 'As a mum, I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to give birth in that sort of place, and to potentially have the child taken from you and put into care,' says Michaella. 'That adds a whole new, terrifying, dimension. It's just incredibly sad.' 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Michaella had been offered £5,000 to smuggle those drugs – a pitiful figure, she admits. 'But in a lot of cases like mine the money isn't life changing, which makes me think even more that there is an element of being tricked into it. I mean who would risk spending 20 years of your life in prison for £3,000 or £4,000 or even £10,000. Even £50,000 isn't enough. No amount of money is worth your freedom.' A few years ago, Michaella wrote a book about her ordeal, which brought understandable criticism from those who feel she should not have been allowed to capitalise on her notoriety. She denies it was a money-spinner ('the financial return was very small, and I wasn't paid for the Netflix documentary either'). Still, on reading it, you do rather wish it could be handed out with boarding passes to youngsters venturing abroad for the first time, as she was. To her credit, Michaella has worked with the police to tell her story to impressionable teens. 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The prisoners included a woman who had killed her own child and served the baby up as food for her unfaithful husband, and another who had murdered and dismembered her mother-in-law. Corruption was rife, with guards routinely taking 'food, magazines, books, chocolates' from visitors' bags. Also prevalent was the trading of sexual favours for basics like water. One of the first Spanish phrases Michaella learned was 'don't touch me'. There were specific challenges that came with being white and British. 'That made it worse for us. Some of the guards thought we were princesses. They just see white skin, blue eyes.' She says she was also 'scammed' by legal professionals. 'People see foreigners as money magnets and charge a lot more to help them. I remember looking back and thinking 'we have been robbed'.' Both girls were eventually sentenced to six years and eight months, after pleading guilty to drug trafficking. 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The Independent
3 days ago
- The Independent
Pope Leo XIV updates his Peruvian citizen registration with his new Vatican address
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Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Daily Mail
Shocking moment stage collapses during live band's performance
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