The Fort Worth Press - Peruvian farmer demands 'climate justice' from German energy giant

USD -
AED 3.672703
AFN 70.498252
ALL 91.249977
AMD 392.339961
ANG 1.802809
AOA 914.999825
ARS 1067.615205
AUD 1.56568
AWG 1.8025
AZN 1.700677
BAM 1.794534
BBD 2.019718
BDT 121.536873
BGN 1.791275
BHD 0.37685
BIF 2915.5
BMD 1
BND 1.332
BOB 6.911865
BRL 5.686204
BSD 1.000317
BTN 86.853357
BWP 13.600829
BYN 3.273631
BYR 19600
BZD 2.009341
CAD 1.42835
CDF 2874.999912
CHF 0.88092
CLF 0.024155
CLP 926.920277
CNY 7.23785
CNH 7.227185
COP 4090.56
CRC 498.956302
CUC 1
CUP 26.5
CVE 101.550191
CZK 22.962302
DJF 177.719955
DKK 6.83594
DOP 62.703576
DZD 133.497055
EGP 50.510597
ERN 15
ETB 129.349818
EUR 0.916295
FJD 2.278978
FKP 0.772807
GBP 0.769775
GEL 2.784958
GGP 0.772807
GHS 15.442628
GIP 0.772807
GMD 71.491246
GNF 8681.521872
GTQ 7.704334
GYD 208.983874
HKD 7.76995
HNL 25.633759
HRK 6.903601
HTG 133.082964
HUF 366.757803
IDR 16365.153292
ILS 3.64903
IMP 0.772807
INR 86.949253
IQD 1310.371863
IRR 42002.616039
ISK 133.993688
JEP 0.772807
JMD 156.511217
JOD 0.709004
JPY 149.024963
KES 129.702938
KGS 87.450009
KHR 4000.792835
KMF 452.166893
KPW 900
KRW 1451.538345
KWD 0.308081
KYD 0.820005
KZT 501.874734
LAK 21673.796803
LBP 90370.436087
LKR 295.334135
LRD 199.166194
LSL 18.167609
LTL 2.95274
LVL 0.604889
LYD 4.812801
MAD 9.687262
MDL 17.770017
MGA 4674.731518
MKD 56.37001
MMK 2099.984052
MNT 3472.481905
MOP 8.006124
MRU 39.926126
MUR 44.958647
MVR 15.46
MWK 1733.328504
MXN 19.951975
MYR 4.446102
MZN 63.639411
NAD 18.167609
NGN 1547.722953
NIO 36.624409
NOK 10.53641
NPR 139.184017
NZD 1.717667
OMR 0.384994
PAB 1
PEN 3.658308
PGK 4.061712
PHP 57.260464
PKR 280.090389
PLN 3.828826
PYG 7990.336833
QAR 3.640091
RON 4.572641
RSD 107.724204
RUB 85.499741
RWF 1404.777444
SAR 3.750241
SBD 8.499789
SCR 14.92221
SDG 598.962615
SEK 10.087845
SGD 1.333696
SHP 0.785843
SLE 22.829682
SLL 20969.501083
SOS 571.789733
SRD 36.319975
STD 20697.981008
SVC 8.74982
SYP 13001.94068
SZL 18.167609
THB 33.538249
TJS 10.937394
TMT 3.500179
TND 3.077978
TOP 2.403818
TRY 36.626985
TTD 6.808822
TWD 32.972358
TZS 2629.952657
UAH 41.623311
UGX 3665.572886
UYU 42.588349
UZS 12938.153443
VES 66.275499
VND 25504.999004
VUV 122.957433
WST 2.818496
XAF 602.88919
XAG 0.029563
XAU 0.000333
XCD 2.7
XDR 0.750475
XOF 602.88919
XPF 109.677643
YER 248.484335
ZAR 18.083075
ZMK 9001.193505
ZMW 28.73323
ZWL 321.999592
  • RBGPF

    -0.4100

    66.02

    -0.62%

  • CMSC

    0.1100

    23.33

    +0.47%

  • SCS

    0.0200

    11.01

    +0.18%

  • BTI

    0.4800

    41.84

    +1.15%

  • RIO

    0.4300

    63.47

    +0.68%

  • NGG

    0.9300

    64.14

    +1.45%

  • GSK

    0.7600

    40.25

    +1.89%

  • BP

    0.3700

    33.76

    +1.1%

  • CMSD

    0.1900

    23.54

    +0.81%

  • AZN

    -0.2300

    77.37

    -0.3%

  • RELX

    0.6700

    49.6

    +1.35%

  • JRI

    0.1700

    13

    +1.31%

  • BCE

    0.2300

    23.7

    +0.97%

  • RYCEF

    0.1000

    10.45

    +0.96%

  • BCC

    0.6500

    100

    +0.65%

  • VOD

    0.3100

    9.86

    +3.14%

Peruvian farmer demands 'climate justice' from German energy giant
Peruvian farmer demands 'climate justice' from German energy giant / Photo: © AFP

Peruvian farmer demands 'climate justice' from German energy giant

A Peruvian farmer taking a German energy giant to court says he is battling for "climate justice" and wants the company to pay for the consequences of rising temperatures.

Text size:

Saul Luciano Lliuya, 44, argues that electricity producer RWE -- one of the world's top emitters of carbon dioxide -- must share the cost of protecting his hometown, Huaraz, from a swollen glacier lake that is at risk of overflowing from melting snow and ice.

He wants the German company to pay 17,000 euros ($18,400) towards flood defences for his community, arguing that the fossil fuels the firm has used to generate electricity make it partly responsible for the flood risk.

"The reality is the glaciers are melting and sadly the mountains are suffering, and that has consequences," he told reporters outside a regional court in the west German city of Hamm.

"It's a risk for me. It's a risk for the more than 50,000 people who live in the danger zone."

Lliuya first filed a lawsuit in 2015 but a court in the western German city of Essen, where RWE is headquartered, dismissed it the following year.

In 2017, however, the Hamm court allowed an appeal.

After a delay due to the Covid pandemic, hearings are scheduled from Monday to Wednesday.

Roda Verheyen, Lliuya's lawyer in the case, expects proceedings to conclude at the end of next year.

Monday's hearing was to consider if Lliuya's property in Peru's Ancash region is at substantial risk of flooding.

It will examine evidence collected by court-appointed experts who travelled to the area in 2022.

If confirmed, a subsequent hearing would look at the question of RWE's responsibility.

- 'Fair contribution' -

Lliuya bases his legal claim on a 2014 study that concluded RWE was responsible for 0.47 percent of all global carbon emissions since the start of the industrial era.

RWE, which has never operated in Peru, should pay that share of the 3.5 million euros it would cost to lower the waters of Lake Palcacocha, he says.

RWE was founded in 1898, and now uses a variety of power sources, including gas and coal as well as solar and wind.

Christoph Bals, head of policy at Germanwatch, an environmental campaign group supporting Lliuya in the case, said they came across his plight after being put in touch by a consultant advising Lliuya on how to manage the rising waters.

"They (the farmers in Huaraz) got talking and they said: 'It's not right. We have done nothing to contribute to climate change and now we’re paying for it'," Bals said outside court.

RWE says a court ruling in favour of Lliuya would set a precedent of holding people responsible under German law for actions that have environmental consequences abroad.

"We think that is legally inadmissible and the wrong way to address this issue socially and politically," a spokesman said.

Dismissing the case in 2015, the Essen court said that it was impossible to draw a link between particular emissions and particular damage.

The Hamm hearing might be the first stage towards overturning that opinion, at a time when 43 climate-damage cases are ongoing worldwide, according to not-for-profit research group Zero Carbon Analytics.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, the law firm representing RWE, says that there could be major implications.

"The sum in dispute may be less than 20,000 euros. But the precedent-setting potential is clear," it said.

S.Jones--TFWP