Monica Feria-Tinta is a barrister at the Bar of England & Wales, and a leading advocate in environmental and climate change litigation both in English and international courts.
What do melting glaciers in the Cordillera Blanca, a mountain range in Peru, have to do with RWE, a fossil fuel giant based in Germany? The answer could have profound consequences for the role of climate litigation in tackling the climate crisis.
Saul Luciano Lliuya is a farmer from Huaraz, a city in the foothills of the Peruvian Andes. He and 120,000 other local residents live in constant danger. The melting of glaciers caused by climate change is causing the water levels in Lake Palcacocha above their home, to rise.
In 1941, a huge chunk of glacier fell into the lake. The resulting avalanche claimed between 1,800 and 7,000 lives. Peru’s disaster management agency warns that a flood could occur at any moment.
A trailblazing lawsuit, which a German court is due to rule on this week, has already set a global precedent for corporate climate liability by seeking to hold RWE accountable for its role in the accelerating glacial melt that threatens Lliuya’s hometown of Huaraz.
Global forest loss hits “frightening” record high with climate-fuelled fires
Liability of fossil fuel companies
Scientific studies link RWE’s emissions to glacier melt, increasing the risk of catastrophic flooding posed by a rapidly expanding glacial lake above the city.
After filing a case against RWE in 2015 for a portion of the costs required to prevent a future flood, an appeals court in Hamm ruled in 2017 that the case was admissible. This was hugely significant – a landmark decision.
In principle, it means that RWE could be held liable for a share of climate change damages, thereby establishing an historic precedent that fossil fuel companies can be held liable in court for such damages.
RWE is now phasing out its coal-fired power plants as part of efforts to reach net zero emissions by 2040 and argues that a single emitter of carbon dioxide cannot be held responsible for global warming. “If such a claim were to exist under German law, it would also be possible to hold every motorist liable,” it said in a recent statement on the case – an assertion the judge went out of his way to dismiss in March during his opening remarks.
Protection from flood risk
Given how significant this case is to climate litigation, I have been following it closely from the beginning. The 2017 ruling already shifted the dial in terms of holding major emitters accountable for the harms they cause.
The last round of hearings in March this year, focused on the scientific evidence of the risk of flooding for the plaintiff’s property. A key question before the court was the extent to which Lliuya’s home and family are at risk. His lawsuit argues that RWE should contribute its fair share to protective measures, given its role in driving the climate impacts endangering his community.
During the hearings, scientists representing the plaintiff challenged key findings of a court-appointed expert report, highlighting critical “blind spots.” They argued the report severely underestimated the risk of rockfalls triggered by thawing permafrost and failed to fully account for climate change’s accelerating impacts. The plaintiff’s legal team warned that the flood risk to Huaraz is much higher than acknowledged and urged the court to act accordingly.
Now a final decision in this landmark case, which could cement its significance for future climate damages litigation, is awaited.
Transboundary harm
While climate litigation is a relatively new area of the law, the basis of Lliuya’s case is nearly 90 years old. “Transboundary harm”, or harm that is not contained by geographic borders, is the notion that links pollution originating from one state to the impact it has on property in another.
The concept was introduced in the 1938 Trail Smelter case where, for the first time ever, a party was held liable for damages caused by fumes carried over to another country by the winds from a privately owned factory. It established the principles of transboundary harm and polluter pays.
Lliuya’s case is the first case to apply this principle in the climate change context, making it a definitive moment in the history of climate litigation.
RWE has stated in its defence that it could not be held accountable for providing electricity to the German people, a lawful act. But the courts in Germany held that you can be held accountable if you knew of the deleterious effect, and that since 1958 it has been foreseeable to an optimal observer that increasing C02 emissions would lead to global warming.
‘David versus Goliath’
Speaking to Lliuya’s lawyer, Roda Verheyen, brought into sharp focus the ‘David vs Goliath’ nature of the case. With RWE possessing vast amounts of resources to litigate, the company has embarked on a strategy of deconstructing the case to a painfully granular level. “Death by detail” is how Verheyen put it to me.
This asymmetrical dynamic is typical of climate litigation cases. Yet despite the disadvantages faced by Lliuya and those supporting him, the precedent already set in 2017 has changed the legal landscape forever.
Greenpeace’s $660m damages ruling a ‘wake-up call’ to climate movement
To date there have been 68 lawsuits filed seeking financial redress for the impacts of climate change. The fossil fuel industry, including oil and gas majors ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and BP, has been the target of 54% of them.
Whatever the outcome of Lliuya’s case, we have entered a new age of corporate accountability, one in which major polluters that cause serious harm to the environment can no longer escape the legal consequences.
The post The Peruvian farmer who has changed the climate litigation landscape forever appeared first on Climate Home News.
The Peruvian farmer who has changed the climate litigation landscape forever
But a $345 million U.S. verdict against the environmental group hangs over the case.
A lawsuit filed by Greenpeace International against the U.S.-based fossil fuel company Energy Transfer in the Netherlands is moving forward after a Dutch court recently ruled in favor of the environmental organization in rejecting the company’s bid to toss out the case.
Greenpeace’s Dutch Anti-SLAPP Case Against Oil Pipeline Giant Advances
Go behind the scenes with executive editor Vernon Loeb and oceans correspondent Teresa Tomassoni as they discuss the search for heat-resilient coral reefs that are somehow defying the odds to survive a warming planet.
The world has already lost more than half of its coral reefs, and most of what remains is at risk of disappearing in the next 25 years.
Climate Change
DeBriefed 19 June 2026: Bonn talks end in ‘gridlock’ | Energy’s ‘new era’ | Oceans in climate negotiations
Welcome to Carbon Brief’s DeBriefed.
An essential guide to the week’s key developments relating to climate change.
This week
Bonn talks close
‘SIDE-STEPPING AND STALLING’: UN climate talks in Bonn have ended in “gridlock”, according to Climate Home News. The outlet reported on the failure to balance developing countries’ need for climate-adaptation finance with “richer nations’ desire to move forward” on emissions cuts. It added that both topics were subject to “rule 16”, meaning no agreement could be reached and work will be pushed to the COP31 summit in Turkey. Inside Climate News quoted UN climate executive secretary Simon Stiell, who said the talks had seen “side-stepping and stalling”.
JUST TRANSITION: One “glimmer of hope” came from negotiations on achieving a “just transition”, reported Euronews. The news outlet said negotiators “made headway on operationalising the Belém-Antalya mechanism”, intended to support people in the shift to a low-carbon economy. However, Politico concluded that much of the focus in Bonn had “shift[ed] to efforts outside diplomatic talks – raising questions about the future of global climate negotiations”.
‘ATTACKING SCIENCE’: Agence France-Presse reported on the EU, Switzerland and “dozens of developing nations” warning of “attacks on science” by a “small group of fossil-fuels interests” in Bonn. Table Briefings explained that “the 1.5C target is increasingly being challenged” and the role of the UN climate-science panel – the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – in an upcoming assessment of global climate progress “remains controversial”. See Carbon Brief’s full write-up of the talks for more detail.
US-Iran deal
PRICE DROP: The US and Iran announced that they have reached an interim agreement to halt the war and reopen the strait of Hormuz, reported Bloomberg. Oil prices have fallen, as the “long-awaited deal” began the process of “eas[ing]” the global energy crisis triggered by the conflict, according to the New York Times. The Associated Press noted that high fuel prices will “likely outlast the Iran war”.
‘OIL GLUT’: The Financial Times reported that the International Energy Agency (IEA) has forecast a “glut of oil” emerging next year, if the peace deal holds. The IEA said this would allow countries to build new strategic reserves, as they “review their energy strategies and policies in response to the crisis”, according to Reuters.
‘NEW ERA’: Agence France-Presse reported that oil and gas companies have “few illusions about a return to normal for the Gulf energy industry after more than three months of blockage”. One analyst told the newswire that the war “showed the oil and gas industry that Hormuz risk is no longer just a geopolitical headline”.
Around the world
- OCEAN MONITOR: The Trump administration is “abandoning its plan” to dismantle a $368m ocean monitoring system key for tracking climate change after a “bipartisan backlash on Capitol Hill”, reported the New York Times.
- CORAL HAVEN: The New York Times covered preliminary research, presented at the Our Ocean Conference in Kenya, suggesting there could be three times as many “coral refugia” – where corals are relatively safe from climate change – than previously thought.
- BAD CREDIT: Down to Earth reported that the first carbon credits issued under the Paris Agreement’s new Article 6.4 mechanism are “facing scrutiny over alleged links to institutions controlled by Myanmar’s military junta”.
- OIL BACKTRACK: Reuters reported that oil-and-gas company Equinor has dropped a renewable-energy target and scaled back clean investments, while another Reuters story noted that Shell is selling off its offshore wind assets.
1.1 billion
The number of children facing “at least three overlapping climate hazards”, according to a new Unicef report covered by Agence France-Presse.
Latest climate research
- Including the “permafrost carbon-climate feedback” in climate models increases the chance of exceeding “tipping elements” – such as the Greenland ice sheets, Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation or Amazon rainforest – by up to 50% | Environmental Research Letters
- The intensity of influenza outbreaks could decline in temperate regions, but increase in tropical areas over the next century, as the climate warms | PNAS Nexus
- European snow cover has declined by 20% for December and January since the start of the industrial era, revealing an “unprecedented ongoing shrinkage of European winters” | Communications Earth & Environment
(For more, see Carbon Brief’s in-depth daily summaries of the top climate news stories on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.)
Captured
The more than 2m battery electric vehicles (BEVs), 1m “plug-in” hybrids (PHEVs) and 100,000 electric vans on UK roads are already saving drivers a total of around £3bn a year, according to new Carbon Brief analysis. This amounts to savings of more than £1,100 a year in fuel costs for each BEV driver in the UK. The analysis comes amid reports in UK media this week that the government is considering “watering down” its EV sales targets.
Spotlight
Oceans rising at UN climate talks
The state of the world’s oceans is inextricably linked to the changing climate – and many delegates at UN climate talks want to see more focus on this issue, reports Carbon Brief.
Oceans are often described as the world’s “greatest ally” against climate change – absorbing 30% of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and most of the heat generated by those emissions.
They are also the site of important climate solutions, such as huge offshore windfarms and the shipping industry’s transition to cleaner fuels.
At the same time, the oceans themselves present a growing danger to coastal communities and sea life due to sea level rise, marine heatwaves and ocean acidification.
These diverse issues have led to growing calls within the UN climate process for more focus on oceans. During climate negotiations this week in Bonn – known as SB64 – nations and civil society had a chance to air these views during an “ocean and climate change dialogue”.
‘Elevate action’
Oceans first entered UN climate outcomes in 2019, when the final COP25 negotiated text requested a new “dialogue” on “the ocean and climate change to consider how to strengthen mitigation and adaptation action”.
The following years saw this dialogue established as an annual event. However, the political weight of these discussions has been limited.
COP31 is being co-led by Turkey and Australia, but with Pacific islands playing a supporting role. These small islands sometimes self-identify as “large ocean states”, stressing the ocean’s centrality in their societies.
In Bonn, figures from across the presidency threw their weight behind this issue. Chris Bowen, an Australian minister and incoming COP31 “president of negotiations”, told attendees:
“Australia, Turkey and the Pacific see an important opportunity to elevate ocean-based climate action.”
Strategies and finance
The two-day dialogue in Bonn involved a series of panels, statements and breakout groups.
One of the main topics was how oceans are integrated into national climate plans under the Paris Agreement, known as “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs).
Three-quarters of the latest round of NDCs mention oceans, with conservation of “blue carbon” ecosystems the most frequently described action. (Landscapes such as mangroves can both absorb CO2 and protect coastal areas.)
Delegates also discussed alignment with the UN biodiversity process, as well as ocean finance, which currently makes up less than 1% of all climate finance.
(As discussions were taking place in Bonn, country officials also gathered in Mombasa, Kenya for the 11th Our Ocean Conference. Carbon Brief’s associate editor Giuliana Viglione attended the conference and will publish a full summary shortly.)
Developing countries were clear that many of the ocean-related actions in their NDCs would depend on receiving more financial support.
‘Political momentum’
With the backing of the COP31 presidency, delegates were hopeful about where this year’s dialogue could lead.
Charles Hamilton, an advisor for the Bahamas who spoke for the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) in the dialogue, told Carbon Brief that island representatives “are not traveling thousands of miles to just talk and pat ourselves on the back”. He added:
“A dialogue that just remains a dialogue is just more talk – no action.”
Given that, he said “discussions in the dialogue must move into COP decisions and the decisions must be actioned”, noting the importance of finance.
Marina Corrêa, oceans lead at WWF-Brazil, pointed to an upcoming UN climate change Standing Committee on Finance forum as a space to ramp up pressure on ocean finance.
More broadly, she wanted to see the presidencies translate their support into a “leader-level ocean initiative” that could “mainstream” oceans across negotiations.
“We have a really interesting opportunity, in terms of political momentum,” Corrêa told Carbon Brief.
Watch, read, listen
‘HOTTER THAN HELL’: An episode of the BBC’s Rare Earth podcast titled “hotter than hell” considered the issue of extreme heat, with input from experts and “people facing up to the hottest temperatures on the planet”.
NOT BROKEN?: John Drake, a professor of ecology at the University of Georgia, wrote an essay for Aeon – also re-published as a Guardian “long read” – questioning the framing of ecosystems and climate systems “breaking down”.
ON COURSE: On his Volts podcast, US climate journalist David Roberts interviewed UK climate minister Katie White, quizzing her about whether the UK will “stay the course with its climate plans”.
Coming up
- 20-28 June: London climate action week
- 21 June: Colombia presidential runoff
- 24 June: UK Climate Change Committee progress in reducing emissions 2026 report to parliament
Pick of the jobs
- Mongabay, managing editor – Africa | Salary: Unknown. Location: Global
- Contexte, environment reporter – Brussels | Salary: €45,000-€60,000. Location: Brussels
- Climate 200, communications director | Salary: Unknown. Location: Australia
- Energy Tracker Asia, energy transition correspondent | Salary: $3,000-$4,000 per month. Location: South-east Asia (remote)
DeBriefed is edited by Daisy Dunne. Please send any tips or feedback to debriefed@carbonbrief.org.
This is an online version of Carbon Brief’s weekly DeBriefed email newsletter. Subscribe for free here.
The post DeBriefed 19 June 2026: Bonn talks end in ‘gridlock’ | Energy’s ‘new era’ | Oceans in climate negotiations appeared first on Carbon Brief.
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