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New York Times
28-05-2025
- Business
- New York Times
German Court Dismisses a Climate Suit but Opens the Door to Future Cases
A German court on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit over global warming filed nearly a decade ago by a Peruvian farmer against a German energy company, but supporters of the long-shot bid said the decision had opened a critical avenue for future climate lawsuits. Although the Hamm Higher Regional Court ruled against the plaintiff, the presiding judge, Rolf Meyer, affirmed that German civil law could be used to hold companies accountable for the worldwide effects of their emissions. 'For the first time in history, a higher court in Europe has ruled that large emitters can be held responsible for the consequences of their greenhouse gas emissions,' said Roda Verheyen, a lawyer for the plaintiff, Saúl Luciano Lliuya. She called the ruling a milestone that 'will give a tailwind to climate lawsuits against fossil fuel companies, and thus to the move away from fossil fuels worldwide.' Mr. Luciano Lliuya, a farmer who also works as a tour guide, had argued that Huaraz, his city in the Andes, faced an existential risk of inundation from melting glaciers. He said that RWE, Germany's largest energy utility, was partly responsible even though it has never operated in Peru. The lawsuit alleged that RWE had contributed about .5 percent of the global emissions driving climate change and should therefore pay the same percentage of the costs of containing Lake Palcacocha, a glacial lake near Huaraz. It put that amount at $19,000. The court sent a delegation to visit Lake Palcacocha in 2022 and conducted a two-day hearing with experts this year. But the court-appointed experts put the probability of flood risk specifically to Mr. Luciano Lliuya's property at just 1 percent over the next 30 years. Given that small chance, the judge said there was no reason to investigate any link to the company's emissions. The ruling is final and cannot be appealed. Still, Mr. Luciano Lliuya said after the verdict that he was proud that the case had 'shifted the global conversation about what justice means in an era of the climate crisis.' In response to the verdict, RWE said that the notion of civil climate liability 'would have unforeseeable consequences for Germany as an industrial location, because ultimately claims could be asserted against any German company for damage caused by climate change anywhere in the world.' The company maintained that the lawsuit was outside the bounds of the German legal system and that it had operated in accordance with the law and detailed rules regarding emissions. The company also pointed to its work in the field of renewables and said that it had reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by more than half since 2018, and that it expected to be carbon neutral by 2040. The courts have become a central venue in the push for stronger action on climate change in recent years, with dozens of lawsuits targeting companies and governments around the world. Those include lawsuits against Shell in the Netherlands and one led by thousands of older Swiss women at the European Court of Human Rights, as well as lawsuits against energy companies filed by American state and local governments. Joana Setzer, an associate professor at the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics, said there were some 60 cases pending around the world aimed at holding companies liable for climate-related loss and damage. 'Today's decision offers a powerful precedent to support those efforts, by confirming the legal foundation for corporate climate liability,' she said. The environmental nonprofit group Germanwatch supported the lawsuit with public relations work, while a related foundation, Stiftung Zukunftsfähigkeit, covered the legal fees. Sébastien Duyck, a senior attorney at the Center for International Environmental Law, which was not involved in the RWE litigation, said the ruling made it more likely 'that those living at the sharp edge of climate change' will succeed in future cases. But environmentalists have also been the target of recent lawsuits by companies, including in North Dakota, where a jury found Greenpeace liable for nearly $670 million over its role in protests against an oil pipeline. Greenpeace maintained that it had played only a minor role and that the suit was an attempt to silence critics of the pipeline company, Energy Transfer. The two sides met before a judge on Tuesday, where Greenpeace argued the evidence presented at trial was insufficient to rule in Energy Transfer's favor. The judge has not yet ruled on that point, or on a separate motion to reduce the size of the award to Energy Transfer. Greenpeace has said it will appeal. The group is also counter-suing in the Netherlands.
Washington Post
28-05-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Court throws out Peruvian farmer's climate lawsuit against energy giant
A German court ruled Wednesday that one of the country's largest energy giants is not liable for alleged harm caused by climate change in Peru, throwing out a decade-long claim by a farmer who fears his mountainside home in the Andes could be destroyed by melted glacier ice. The court found that RWE, the utility firm, was not obliged to contribute to the costs of protecting Huaraz, a city of some 120,000 people in the foothills of the Andes, from the risk of catastrophic flooding made more likely by climate change. The case was brought by one of its residents, farmer Saúl Luciano Lliuya. The judgment marks a blow for climate campaigners who had sought to use the German court system to establish a legal precedent for making energy firms liable for the costs of mitigating the impact of climate change globally. RWE, which has never operated in Peru, had argued that individual emitters could not be held responsible for 'universally rooted' processes like climate change. In a statement Wednesday, the energy firm welcomed the ruling, which found the risk of flooding to Luicano Lliuya's property was too low to merit damages. RWE said that if granted, the claim would have had 'unforeseeable consequences for Germany as an industrial location, because ultimately claims could be asserted against any German company for damage caused by climate change anywhere in the world.' In their case, Luciano Lliuya's attorneys cited an analysis that found RWE's mines and power stations were responsible for 0.47 percent of all emissions produced by people in the industrial era. As a result, they claimed that the energy firm was liable to pay around $20,000 toward the building of a protective drainage system for Huaraz, about 0.47 percent of its projected total cost. The city is at risk of catastrophic flooding from Laguna Palcacocha, a pool of melted glacier water that has swelled in recent decades as the nearby Palcaraju glacier melts. According to an attribution study published in the journal Nature Geoscience in 2021, the melting of the Nevado Palcaraju glacier would be virtually impossible in a world without climate change. At any moment, the lake could burst its banks and send a deluge of nearly 2 million cubic meters of water toward Huaraz below. About 50,000 people live on the banks of the Quilcay River, a high hazard zone where the flood could be strong enough to sweep away small brick and adobe homes. In 1941, a glacial lake outburst flood killed one-third of the city's population. The Palcacocha drainage project is intended to improve lake's existing flood defenses and protect thousands of Huaraz homes — including Luciano Lliuya's — from the risk of a repeat. In a statement Wednesday, Luicano Lliuya said that while he was disappointed by the ruling, he believes the judgment opened the door to holding polluters legally responsible for the harm they have caused. 'My case has shifted the global conversation about what justice means in an era of the climate crisis, and that makes me proud,' he said.
The Guardian
28-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
German court dismisses Peruvian farmer's climate lawsuit against RWE
A German appeals court has dismissed the case of a Peruvian farmer suing the energy giant RWE for climate damages. The upper regional court in Hamm rejected the argument by the farmer and mountain guide Saúl Luciano Lliuya that his home was at direct risk of being washed away by a glacial flood. Lliuya initially filed a case against RWE in 2015, backed by the non-profit Germanwatch, to make the company contribute to local flood defences in line with its share of planet-heating pollution. The German electricity company is one of the world's biggest greenhouse gas polluters but has never operated in Peru. Lliuya's case was at first thrown out by a lower court in Essen, where RWE is headquartered, but the appeals court in Hamm later found it to be 'admissible'. Climate campaigners hailed it as a development that would open the door for fossil fuel companies to be held liable in civil courts for global harms. The court said it would not be possible for Lliuya to appeal against Wednesday's ruling. Lliuya's home sits in the Andean town of Huaraz, large parts of which were wiped out in 1941 when Lake Palcacocha overflowed and triggered floods that killed thousands of people. A hearing in Hamm in March centred on the direct risk of a glacial lake outburst flood resulting in damage to Lliuya's property. Climate campaigners have increasingly taken polluters to court for their role in heating the planet, several of which have resulted in courts ordering greater efforts to cut pollution. Similar cases that are ongoing have been filed in Belgium by a cattle farmer targeting the French oil giant TotalEnergies, and in Switzerland by four Indonesians targeting the cement maker Holcim. More details soon …
Washington Post
28-05-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Lawsuits aim to hold fossil fuel companies responsible for climate change. Here's a look at some
A German court is expected to rule Wednesday in a landmark climate lawsuit brought by a Peruvian farmer against energy company RWE that claims global warming fueled by the firm's historical greenhouse gas emissions puts his home at risk. Farmer and mountain guide Saúl Luciano Lliuya said glaciers above his hometown of Huaraz are melting, increasing the risk of catastrophic flooding. RWE, which has never operated in Peru, denies legal responsibility, arguing that climate change is a global issue caused by many contributors.
