Climate change: why Peruvian farmers, California towns go to court

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While many continue to doubt the existence of climate change, some individuals aren’t waiting for definite figures but are heading straight to the courtroom to voice their grievances and push governments and corporations to action.

On Thursday, a German court ruled that a Peruvian farmer could sue German electricity company RWE for contributing to local climate conditions that are causing a glacier to melt and a local lake to overflow, endangering his hometown.

But he isn’t the only one to go on the legal offensive over increasingly erratic global weather patterns.

Climate change lawsuits have multiplied in recent years. As of March 2017, some 890 cases had been filed in 24 countries and in international courts, including a whopping 654 in the US alone, according to a UN Environment Programme report.

Before 2014, only about 12 countries had seen such lawsuits. And they are increasingly filed by individuals and small communities.

Andes glaciers, Portuguese wildfires

Saul Luciano Lliuya comes from a small town in the Andes but traveled thousands of kilometers to sue RWE in a case that the German press has compared to a battle between David and Goliath.

Peruvian farmer and mountain guide Saul Luciano Lliuya and his lawyer Roda Verheyen react after a high regional German court ruled against RWE, one of Europe's biggest electricity companies, in Hamm, Germany, November 13, 2017. /Reuters Photo

Lliuya says the German giant should help pay for flood defenses in his city, based on a 2013 climate study that found RWE was responsible for 0.5 percent of global emissions "since the beginning of industrialization."

In Portugal, a group of children is hoping to drag EU states in front of the European Court of Human Rights over forest fires in their region that killed over 100 people this year.

Their goal is to force governments to reduce carbon emissions, seen as a key contributor to climate change. “To stay quiet and say it is wrong is not enough. We need to act for a better future,” nine-year-old plaintiff Andre says in a video on their crowdfunding website.

Three Californian communities are meanwhile suing firms such as Shell, Exxon, Total and Chevron over sea level rises that they say could cause billions of dollars in damage and endanger the lives of thousands of locals.

The suit says the defendants “have known for nearly 50 years that greenhouse gas pollution from their fossil fuel products has a significant impact on the Earth’s climate and sea levels,” The Guardian reported. Worse, the companies carried out a “coordinated, multi-front effort to conceal and deny their knowledge of these threats.”

Activists hold banners during a protest on the Rhein river organised by the environmental organisation Greenpeace during COP23 UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany, November 15, 2017. /Reuters Photo

In India, a nine-year-old girl filed a lawsuit against the government in April, accusing it of failing “to take steps to regulate and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which are causing extreme climate conditions. This will impact both me and future generations,” she told UK newspaper The Independent.

Groups of citizens are also suing their governments in Belgium, Ireland and Switzerland, urging them to do more to protect the environment for future generations.

Easier to sue

An increase in legislation related to climate change, which has led to more clearly defined duties and responsibilities for governments and companies, has made it easier for individuals and organizations to sue.

A total 164 countries now have about 1,200 climate change laws and policies, according to a study by the London School of Economics’ Grantham Institute on Climate Change. In 1997, there were just about 60 laws in existence worldwide.

UN and world leaders pose for a family photo during COP23 UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn, Germany, November 15, 2017. /Reuters Photo

Scientific evidence is also more readily available to back up claims.

“Developments in attribution science are improving our ability to detect human influence on extreme weather events,” a paper by environmental lawyers published in the scientific journal Nature found in September.

“By implication, the legal duties of government, business and others to manage foreseeable harms are broadening, and may lead to more climate change litigation.”

Supporting role

Not all who sue come up with the idea on their own. In many cases, environmental groups, lawyers and NGOs stand behind them, offering counsel and financial support but also looking to attract attention.

This is the case with the Portuguese children, who are backed by NGO Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) and environmental lawyers from the UK.

Peruvian farmer Lliuye is supported by the NGO Germanwatch.

Two environmental activists hold a placard that reads "RWE must pay for the climate damage" in Hamm, Germany, November 13, 2017. /Reuters Photo

In 2015, environmental group Urgenda helped some 900 Dutch citizens sue the government for doing too little to combat climate change. The Hague district court eventually ruled that “the State must do more to avert the imminent danger caused by climate change” and ordered it to cut emissions by 25 percent by 2020, compared to 1990 levels, in what was seen as a landmark case.

Rewards and defeats

Not all cases end in victory. Earlier this month, New Zealand’s High Court threw out a student’s climate change lawsuit against her government. And the Dutch government is now appealing the 2015 Urgenda verdict.

And rewards can be low. Saul Luciano Lliuya is suing RWE for just 17,000 euros (20,150 US dollars) – equivalent to 0.5 percent of the costs incurred by his city from climate change, in line with RWE’s reported 0.5-percent contribution to global carbon emissions.

But for many, a moral victory and the fact that a momentum is now building is sufficient.

“Climate change litigation is starting to parallel the waves of cases brought against tobacco companies, which eventually turned the tide of public opinion against the industry,” according to ClientEarth, a UK-based environmental lawyers’ group.

With an increasing number of lawsuits being filed against governments and corporations, “this an unprecedented moment for climate change litigation,” it said.

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