(17 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hamm, Germany – 17 March 2025
1. Wide of Peruvian farmer Saul Luciano Lliuya and supporters arriving
2. Mid of Lliuya walking towards court building
3. Wide of court building
4. Wide of Lliuya in front of paper wall showing glacier
5. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Saul Luciano Lliuya, Peruvian farmer:
"We have waited 10 years for this day, this decisive day. I’m very excited. I hope that everything goes well.”
6. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Saul Luciano Lliuya, Peruvian farmer:
"The reality is the glaciers are melting. Yes, unfortunately the mountains are suffering and that has its consequences. That’s why I’m here asking for climate justice."
7. Wide of people chanting and holding banner reading (German): "Climate crisis causes melting of glaciers. Floods are threatening 50,000 people"
8. SOUNDBITE (German) Roda Verheyen, lawyer:
"RWE is still one of the biggest emitters of CO2 in all of Europe. When we started the claims RWE was the biggest single emitter of CO2 in the whole of Europe and until today RWE’s emission are as large as the ones of entire countries like The Netherlands and Belgium. That’s why we chose RWE and it might not be the last and only one. If we finish the case next year and I hope we leave the court today with clear evidence, meaning proof that RWE contributed to the risk for the people in Peru, then we will go after other great emitters. This is only a very first step — a trampoline for further cases of this kind."
9. Mid of Lliuya
10. Wide of court
11. Lliuya posing with lawyers
12. Interior of courtroom
13. Mid of Lliuya with lawyers
14. Close of Lliuya
15. Mid of Lliuya with his lawyers
16. Wide of people outside court
17. Banner reading (German): "Climate pollution is a crime. Hold the polluter responsible"
STORYLINE:
A German court on Monday started a hearing on a Peruvian farmer’s case against major energy company RWE, a lawsuit arguing that global warming fueled by the firm’s historical greenhouse gas emissions ultimately poses a risk to his home.
Experts say the case at the state court in Hamm, in western Germany, could set a significant precedent in the fight to hold major polluters accountable for climate change.
Saul Luciano Lliuya’s lawsuit against RWE argues that the company’s historical greenhouse gas emissions have fueled global warming, accelerating glacial melt above his hometown of Huaraz, Peru.
As a result, Lake Palcacocha has swelled to dangerous levels, threatening the community with the risk of catastrophic flooding.
RWE, which has never operated in Peru, denies legal responsibility, arguing that climate change is a global issue caused by many contributors.
"The reality is the glaciers are melting – unfortunately the mountains are suffering and that has its consequences. That’s why I’m here asking for climate justice," Lliuya said outside the courthouse, standing in front of photos of glaciers in the shape of mountains.
“We have waited 10 years for this day, this decisive day,” he said to cheers from supporters. “I’m very excited; I hope that everything goes well.”
The lead lawyer in the complaint, Roda Verheyen, said RWE “is still one of the biggest emitters of CO2 in all of Europe."
“This is only a very first step — a trampoline for further cases of this kind” that could target other emitters, she added.
RWE argues that the lawsuit is legally inadmissible and that it sets a dangerous precedent by holding individual emitters accountable for global climate change.
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