Peruvian farmer goes head to head with German energy giant in climate test case
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
A groundbreaking court case involving climate kicks off today in Germany. A Peruvian farmer is suing an energy giant in Germany for what he claims is its historic role in accelerating the effects of global warming and contributing to glaciers melting high above his home in the Andes thousands of miles away. Here’s Simeon Tegel reporting from Peru.
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SIMEON TEGEL, BYLINE: Peru is home to 70% of the world’s tropical glaciers, but they are disappearing rapidly. Palcacocha, a lake in the heart of the country’s Cordillera Blanca mountain range, is already swollen by Andean meltwater to over 30 times its normal volume. The threat of flooding in the valley below - constant.
SAUL LUCIANO LLIUYA: (Speaking Spanish).
TEGEL: The fear grows when it rains intensely, just like it has in recent weeks, and the lake rises, says farmer Saul Luciano Lliuya. NPR managed to catch up with him in Hamburg.
LLIUYA: (Speaking Spanish).
TEGEL: “Fifty thousand people living below Palcacocha around the town of Huaraz stand to lose their homes and lives if the lake burst its banks,” Lliuya says. Now Lliuya is suing German power company, RWE, over the carbon produced by its coal-fired power stations, which had been belching it into the atmosphere since the 19th century.
FRANCESCA MASCHA KLEIN: We want Saul and the people in Huaraz to live in safety.
TEGEL: Francesca Mascha Klein is a lawyer for the environmental nonprofit Germanwatch, which is supporting Lliuya’s claim. The landmark civil case, using a property law usually targeted at difficult neighbors, opened in Hamm in Northwestern Germany. Klein says that just by agreeing to hear Lliuya’s case, the judges have already set a precedent for dozens of other similar lawsuits being brought around the world, including one in Honolulu against Chevron, Exxon and other oil majors.
KLEIN: No one should fear losing their home due to the climate crisis.
TEGEL: Germanwatch estimates that RWE has produced nearly 0.5% of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions.
Klein, again.
KLEIN: Fossil companies have known for decades their products caused climate change, but they covered up the science while they made hundreds of billions of profits.
TEGEL: RWE, which has never operated in Peru, denies legal responsibility. It argues climate change is a global issue caused by many contributors. If found liable, the company says, then even ordinary motorists could potentially be sued for their vehicles’ carbon footprints. The climate crisis should be resolved by government policy, RWE says, not in court.
LLIUYA: (Speaking Spanish).
TEGEL: Lliuya just hopes the glaciers stop melting, but he admits that’s unlikely. Instead, he says, the focus needs to be on making polluters pay to manage the risks.
For NPR News, I’m Simeon Tegel in Lima, Peru.
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