Peruvian farmer takes German energy giant RWE to court in landmark climate case

HAMM, Germany (Reuters) - A German court on Monday resumes hearing a landmark case brought by a Peruvian farmer who argues that the German energy giant RWE's emissions have contributed to the melting of Andean glaciers, increasing the flood risk to his home.

The case could set a precedent for future climate litigation by holding companies accountable for past emissions and requiring them to help fund climate adaptation for affected communities.

Saul Luciano Lliuya, supported by the activist group Germanwatch, wants RWE to pay around 21,000 euros ($23,000) toward a $3.5 million flood defence project.

Using data from the Carbon Majors database of historic production from major fossil fuel and cement producers, Lliuya says RWE has caused nearly 0.5% of global manmade emissions since the industrial revolution, and should cover a proportional share of the costs of the global warming they have caused. 

"Legal experts are watching closely to understand the extent to which this is going ... to set a strong precedent," said Sebastien Duyck, senior attorney with the Center for International Environmental Law.

The sum that industrialised countries should contribute to mitigating the effects of global warming - such as rising sea levels or extreme storms and heatwaves - has been argued over at successive U.N. climate summits up to last year's COP29 in Baku.

Since then, President Donald Trump has announced the U.S.'s withdrawal from the U.N. process, while other developed countries are diverting aid budgets to domestic challenges or defence spending.

Harjeet Singh, founding director of the Satat Sampada Climate Foundation, dedicated to global climate justice, said cases like Lliuya's could one day generate alternative funding.  

"We can double down on those companies who are responsible for the crisis and how we can raise the proceeds to help people recover from current impacts," Singh said.

RWE, which is phasing out its coal-fired power plants, says a single emitter of carbon dioxide cannot be held responsible for global warming.

"If such a claim were to exist under German law, it would also be possible to hold every motorist liable," it said in a statement.

GLACIER MELT CAUSES ICE AVALANCHES AND ROCK SLIDES  

The case started in 2015 in the German city of Essen, RWE's home. It was initially dismissed, but the Higher Regional Court of Hamm let it go forward in 2017.

The court must first determine whether melting glaciers are raising water levels in Lake Palcacocha, over 4,500 metres (15,000 feet) above sea level, and pose a direct risk to Lliuya's home in Huaraz over the next 30 years.

Court-appointed experts visited the site in 2022, and their reports, released in 2023 and 2024, will be examined in the two-day hearing.

Lukas Arenson, a geotechnical expert and vice president of the International Permafrost Association, said the report had focused on the effect of ice avalanches on the water level, but overlooked the greater risk of rock slides from permafrost areas, which play a crucial role in holding mountains together.

If the court finds there is a specific flooding risk to Lliuya's home, it will then examine the impact of climate change and greenhouse gas emissions on Andean glaciers melting and increasing the risk, which could take another two years.

"We have a strong causal field, and we have also an attribution paper that shows that the glacier would not have retreated at all without climate change," said Friederike Otto, climate scientist at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment.

A 2021 study by Oxford and Washington universities found that the melting of a glacier in the Peruvian Andes was caused by man-made global warming.

Roda Verheyen, Lliuya's lawyer, said the fact that the court had taken on the case was already a win.

"Saul ... had very little to no hope that this would get anywhere. And now we're all here."

($1 = 0.9192 euros)

(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa; Editing by Kevin Liffey)