香港六合彩

The deep-blue water glistens ominously in the sunshine. The lake is fed by the region鈥檚 accelerating听, powered by warming temperatures that were long ago shown to be the听

Lake Palcacocha is the subject of an听. On one side, a German energy giant that is said to be responsible for 0.47% of the world鈥檚 industrial greenhouse gas emissions. On the other, a Quechua-speaking farmer who had never travelled outside Peru until he joined this听.

The unlikely plaintiff

The Cordillera Blanca mountain range in the northern Peruvian Andes is a region shaped by disaster. In 1941, Lake Palcacocha鈥檚 banks broke, probably due to an avalanche, devastating the city of Huaraz downstream and killing around 2,000 people.

The region鈥檚 most devastating disaster occurred three decades later in 1970, when an earthquake caused another massive avalanche that听听and nearby villages, burying 30,000 people (although many of the town鈥檚 children survived because they were attending a nearby circus show). The disaster left a deep impact on the area鈥檚 social and cultural fabric. Yungay was permanently relocated and authorities stepped up their efforts to monitor glacial hazards.

As well as being a farmer, Sa煤l Luciano Lliuya works here as a mountain guide, leading tourists up the icy peaks year after year. Now in his early 40s, he came of age at a time of unprecedented environmental change in his homeland. Avalanches and glacial floods听, and he has lost a number of colleagues and friends.听听show that Luciano Lliuya鈥檚 family home is in the danger zone if another large avalanche was to fall into Lake Palcacocha, causing its banks to burst.

As in many parts of the world, climate change has intensified existing vulnerabilities in the rural Andes while creating new dimensions of risk. Luciano Lliuya comes from an Indigenous population subjugated by Spanish colonisers that still faces marginalisation today. He grew up speaking Quechua at home and faced discrimination at school in Huaraz. Teachers only used Spanish and beat children for speaking their Indigenous language.

In recent decades, an upsurge in mountain climbing tourism has created new opportunities for villagers such as Luciano Lliuya, who have traversed high altitudes since an early age. To them, mountains are more than just boulders and ice. 鈥淎 mountain is a geological formation,鈥� he says, 鈥渂ut another perspective is that the mountains nurture us. They are powerful beings of some sort 鈥� For me, the mountain is someone who gives you everything.鈥�

Many of the local people make tribute payments to these mountains, hoping to avoid their wrath and guarantee plentiful harvests. Up at Lake Palcacocha, the villagers who oversee an early-warning flooding system installed by the Ancash region鈥檚 government also present ritual offerings to the mountains every month. They say that when they missed one in 2017, an avalanche crashed into the lake causing waves of several metres 鈥� but that time, the old safety dams held steady.

Luciano Lliuya too feels a deep responsibility for the mountains that are suffering as they听. Before summiting a peak on a climbing tour, he pays respect by laying coca leaves on the glacial ice. If he fails to show respect, he fears the mountain will show its anger.

Almost ten years ago, Luciano Lliuya was introduced via his father to a group of climate activists from the environmental NGO听. They discussed the chance to ask one of the world鈥檚 biggest greenhouse gas emitters, German energy giant RWE, to make a tribute payment to these mountains too.

If the case succeeds, it could set a global precedent to hold major polluters responsible for the effects of climate change, even on the other side of the world. Already, it has had a significant impact. After the case was听听in November 2017 鈥� meaning that Luciano Lliuya had won a key legal argument, if not yet the scientific ones 鈥� RWE鈥檚 stock value听. This reflects a broader trend: international companies and their investors are waking up to the听.

Taking on a German energy giant

Meeting Luciano Lliuya in his tiny village of Llupa, you鈥檇 hardly think he鈥檇 become something of a climate justice celebrity. The case has taken him to German courts and international UN summits. Having once been nervous about speaking at his local village assemblies, he has now addressed thousands of people at major climate marches and given countless interviews to the world鈥檚 press.

At home, his quiet life is periodically disturbed by听. He says he doesn鈥檛 care much for stardom, but appreciates the interest in his legal case:

鈥�I want people to know what we鈥檙e facing here in Peru. The people in wealthy countries like Germany should understand how climate change is making our lives more dangerous. Perhaps that will motivate them to stop polluting so much.

听I first visited his two-storey family home in December 2014, when I was asked to interpret for three representatives from Germanwatch (I鈥檝e since worked with Luciano Lliuya as a legal strategist, scientific adviser and academic researcher). We were treated to a special meal of guinea pig and potatoes with red chilli sauce. Half-way through, he smiled and glanced around the table at his fellow diners including his father, Julio. Then he told us all quietly: 鈥淚鈥檒l do it. I鈥檒l do the claim.鈥�

That moment marked a transformation of Luciano Lliuya鈥檚 life 鈥� and mine. In the run-up to the听听(COP20) in Peru鈥檚 capital, Lima, Germanwatch employees had been taking an interest in the Cordillera Blanca mountain range 鈥� a region of particular concern for its vulnerability to climate change. Having recently lived in Peru, I joined the team as they looked for local people in the Andes to help voice this concern.

A Peruvian friend who was working with local farmers in the region suggested Julio Luciano Lliuya, who had recently told him how badly climate change was affecting their community鈥檚 livelihood. Following two weeks of intense UN negotiations at the COP20 summit, I embarked on an eight-hour bus ride to Huaraz with three Germanwatch representatives.

Father and son met us in the city with their rickety old Toyota van. Navigating uneven dirt-track roads, they took us on a tour of the mountains and told us about their climate-related concerns: in the short term, glacial retreat causing disastrous avalanches and floods; in the longer term, water scarcity threatening their very way of being.

Keen to show us the glaciers up close, Julio鈥檚 only son Sa煤l took us on a six-hour trek up to Lake Palcacocha. The hike was so strenuous that two of my colleagues had to turn around halfway, struggling with altitude sickness. Whatever breath I had left was taken away when I first glimpsed the lake, with those shiny white glaciers framing its deep blue water.

Walking along the lake鈥檚 edge, a distant crash broke the silence. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just a small avalanche 鈥� that happens all the time,鈥� explained one of the villagers working for the local government who are present here around the clock to watch over the lake. Far away on the glacier, I spotted a flurry of falling snow. 鈥淵ou see? This one didn鈥檛 even reach the lake.鈥� I wondered about the consequences of a bigger avalanche on the residents of the valley below, including the Luciano Lliuya family.

Back down in the village over our guinea pig lunch, Julio (who was in his seventies) explained he had transferred his property in the flood danger zone to his seven children. To our surprise, the youngest of them, Sa煤l, offered to make the claim against RWE.

鈥淎ll right then,鈥� said Christoph Bals, Germanwatch鈥檚 policy director. 鈥淲e鈥檙e going to court!鈥�

An outlandish idea

When I began working on this project nearly a decade ago, holding a major emitter responsible for climate change occurring across the world seemed an outlandish idea.听听had come up with the idea of bringing a claim under the country鈥檚听听(part of the extensive听) 鈥� but this idea had yet to be tested in court.

When Sa煤l Luciano Lliuya first heard about this option, he said his preferred option was to confront a major polluter, so we settled on a claim against the听. Based some 6,500 miles away in the industrial city of Essen, RWE has produced coal-fired energy since it was founded in the 19th century. Much more recently, its plans for the huge new Garzweiler open-cast coalmine in western Germany have been met with听听and some controversy about听.

Over the past 25 years, the energy company has diversified into renewable energy, and states that it will be 鈥溾��. A听, commissioned by the听听in Australia, estimated that RWE had produced 0.47% of all the world鈥檚 industrial greenhouse gas emissions between 1854 and 2010.

In Luciano Lliuya鈥檚 homeland, the local government plans to build a new dam and drainage system at Lake Palcacocha to reduce the risk of flooding, at a projected cost of about US$4 million. Luciano Lliuya, via the lawsuit, wants RWE to cover 0.47% of that sum, or around US$20,000.

The case鈥檚 central argument is simple: that climate change makes听听鈥� so, RWE should be a good neighbour and accept its responsibility for contributing to climate change impacts in Peru.

Initially, a lower court in Essen听听(in December 2016) that the lawsuit against the energy giant was听. However, the following November, this was听听by the Higher Regional Court in Hamm, which declared the case admissible and began examining the evidence.

The requested sum of US$20,000 is a symbolic amount of money, of course 鈥� RWE鈥檚 legal costs are likely to go much higher. Yet, when the judges suggested an out-of-court settlement at a hearing in 2017, the company鈥檚 lawyer refused, stating: 鈥淭his is a matter of precedent.鈥�

The estimated cost of future climate-related claims extends听.

The legal strategy

鈥淭his feels like we鈥檙e at 5,000 metres in the Andes,鈥� remarks Sa煤l Luciano Lliuya as, fighting a biting wind, we walk to the Essen courthouse. It is November 2015 and this is his first trip outside Peru 鈥� accompanied by his father. Acting as guide and interpreter, I freeze alongside them in my thick winter coat while these two hardy Peruvians sport only light jackets.

A TV crew is filming as Luciano Lliuya enters the courthouse with his lawyer to submit the claim against RWE. They emerge a few minutes later, and he gives a statement to the awaiting journalists and TV cameras:

鈥�I鈥檓 making this claim because the mountains in Peru are suffering. The glaciers are melting. We haven鈥檛 caused this problem 鈥� it鈥檚 big companies like RWE. Now they must take responsibility.

Speaking to the press is a new and nerve-wracking experience for him. But when he thinks about the mountains and why he is taking this action, a fire seems to light up inside.

While the legal process moves slowly on, they have no choice but to adapt 鈥� and not just to the threat posed by the lake. Weather patterns are becoming less reliable. The Peruvian Andes usually have a dry season from May to August, and farmers rely on the first rains in September to plant their crops. Now, the rains sometimes begin too early, or not until November. New pests are also harming their potato harvests 鈥� the warming climate has brought rats to higher altitudes, for example.

In the long term, climate change could have even more devastating impacts on Luciano Lliuya鈥檚 community. Glaciers are natural water storage devices so, as they disappear, the people here will face听. 鈥淚f there鈥檚 no more water,鈥� he says, 鈥渨e鈥檒l lose our livelihoods. There will be nothing left.鈥� No water for the fields, no glaciers to climb.

But Luciano Lliuya is stubborn. In the face of malicious rumours and unwanted attention, others might have given up. He just climbed more mountains.

After attending COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh in November 2022, he went on an all-night trek which included climbing Mount Sinai, following in the steps of Moses. The sandy landscape was a sharp contrast to the glaciers and green pastures he is used to in Peru. Squinting into the rising sun, he reflected on the perils of life on a warming planet.

He said it made him imagine a bleak future in which the whole world resembles these surroundings: 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why I鈥檒l continue fighting 鈥� so that our mountains back home don鈥檛 turn to desert too one day.鈥�

This article was originally published in听on 27听November 2023.

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• Dr Noah Walker-Crawford's academic profile

• 香港六合彩 Political Science