Peruvian farmer said he had faith in the German justice system at a Wednesday press conference ahead of his flight to the German city of Hamm, where his case is about to be heard.
“I have full confidence in these processes,” he told journalists in Lima.
The hearing, scheduled to begin on March 17, is next step culmination of a nearly ten-year legal battle between Lliuya, 44, and German energy giant RWE over the effect is having on his village in ‘s northern Ancash region.
Why RWE?
Lliuya is seeking assistance from RWE to address the effects of climate change on his village of Huaraz, where a glacier lake is swelling due to melting snow and ice, putting the entire town at risk.
His claim is based on a 2013 Carbon Majors Study that found RWE responsible for 0.5% of climate change since industrialization began. Therefore, he is asking that the company pay for about 0.5% of the cost of protecting Huaraz, some €17,000 ($18,400).
“What I am asking is for the company to take responsibility for part of the construction costs, such as a dike in this case,” the father of two said in Lima, adding that “the melting of the glaciers is very evident.”
For its part, RWE has said it doesn’t know why it was being singled out, having never operated in Peru and saying it has plans to be carbon neutral by 2040.
Case will ‘set a huge precedent’
The judicial process has been an uphill battle for Lluiya, with the case first being dismissed by a court in the city of Essen in 2015, before two years later. Proceedings were further delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The hearing later in March will see the court deciding what evidence is admissable in the final trial, the first time a climate case against a major polluter has gotten this far in Germany.
Andrea Tang, a lawyer for the NGO Germanwatch, who is paying Lliuya’s legal fees, said that the case “would set a huge precedent for the future of climate justice… something that could be applied in other civil cases, in other countries as well.”
Edited by: Darko Janjevic
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