The Peruvian farmer goes face to face with the German energy giant in the event of a climate test: NPR

Lima, Peru – a Climate lawsuit teacher It opens in a German court on Monday, where the German Giant Peruvian energy farms are sued for the threat of his home From a mountain lake overflowing with Melit Miller Ice.

Saul Luciano Lliuya, 45, lives in Huaraz, a city in the Ancash area in Peru, in the heart of the Peruvian Andes Mountains. It is more than a mile below for Kakochha, a high -height lake is Filled with 35 times more water than usual. Peru is home to 70 % of the global tropical icebergs – But they disappear quickly.

If its banks explode, it is possible that Palcacocha waters from the Lliuya house, as well as the homes of an estimated 50,000 people living in Huaraz and around it, and perhaps with them inside.

In response, Lliuya uses the German real estate law that is usually used against hostile neighbors to target RweIt is a power company that makes coal power plants one of the largest greenhouse gases in Europe.

Support from GermanwatchIt is a local non -profit organization, and Lliya has calculated that since I started working in 1898, RWE made up 0.47 % of all carbon emissions created by human beings. Therefore, Lliuya asks 0.47 % of the cost, about $ 18,000, to build a dam that it will protect and Heuraz from a catastrophic breach of Palcacocha banks.

The issue is the culmination of a legal battle close to 10 years for Lliuya, and it is the first to hear approximately 50 similar climate civil claims in different countries around the world-including those brought by the city and province of Honolulu, Hawaii, against Chevron, Exagonbyl, BB, Shell, Shell Shell.

Although its ruling may not be binding on other judicial states, the case provides a legal template with many other countries, including the United States, and has similar property legislation.

RWE, which has never worked in Peru, denies legal responsibility. He argues that climate change is a global issue caused by many shareholders. If they find responsibility, they argue, even, ordinary car drivers can be prosecuted due to carbon emissions in their cars. The company says that the climate crisis must be resolved through government policy, not in court.

The Peruvian farmer Saul Luciano Lilia, along with a huge sink hole opened in the ice rivers near his home in the Andes Mountains.

SIMEON TEGEL/NPR

Hide the explanatory name

Switch the explanatory name

SIMEON TEGEL/NPR

The risk of washing bacochha thousands of lives are all very brutal for people in Huaraz. In 1970, an earthquake in the same prior valley led to a landslide that resulted in the killing of an estimated 25,000 people.

But snows, ground collapses, and sudden sudden floods are just dramatic consequences for climate change in the Peruvian mountains.

Many societies lose their water sources from the melting of the ice rivers, while others see the local tables stained and turned into toxic by recently exposed rocks full of heavy metals that were once covered with thick ice panels. The seasons also change, making agriculture more difficult, while lesions, including mites, flourish.

“It is frightening, and the risk of climate change. For example, the sky was raining. Even the rivers passed through the city had risen.” “There is a lot of fear and the lake levels have risen. People are very worried.”

“We want Saul and the Huaraz people to live in safety,” added GERMANWACCH Francesca Mascha Klein, who works in the case with Lliuya.

The case will be held near RWE offices, in a local court in Ham, northwestern Germany. It is expected to take several weeks.