A German judge expressed skepticism about the risk of flooding glacial melt to the home of a
"There is currently no concrete risk that the house will be submerged by the waters of Lake Palcacocha," said Rolf Meyer, a judge at the Hamm court in northwestern Germany, on Wednesday, the second day of hearings, in this landmark "climate justice" case.
The risk to the plaintiff's home must be "palpable" and "concrete," the judge emphasized.
The court announced that it will deliver its verdict on April 14.
Farmer Saul Luciano Lliuya and Germanwatch, the NGO supporting him, are demanding that RWE, one of Germany's largest energy companies, contribute to efforts to lower the water level of the lake in proportion to its share of global greenhouse gas emissions, which is 0.47%.
The court must first assess the flood risk to Lliuya's house. If the risk is deemed serious, it will then examine to what extent climate change and RWE's emissions contribute to potential flooding.
Between Monday and Wednesday, two experts were questioned about the probability of this risk. One of them, engineer Rolf Katzenbach, described it as "unlikely" and estimated the probability at less than 1% over the next 30 years.
The expert "chose a method that makes him practically blind in one eye" to certain risks, said Roda Verheyen, Lliuya's lawyer, before the hearing on Wednesday.
She expressed "great surprise" at the definitive nature of Katzenbach's statements.
The plaintiffs criticized Katzenbach for focusing too much on the risk of ice avalanches while neglecting rockfalls, and for relying on past data to the detriment of future projections.
A court-appointed delegation traveled to Peru in 2022 to assess the situation on the ground.
Lliuya's nearly decade-long lawsuit brought him to Germany this week to attend the hearing.
He first filed the lawsuit in 2015, but a court in Essen, western Germany, where RWE is headquartered, dismissed it the following year.
However, in 2017, a higher court in Hamm accepted an appeal and ordered further evidence to be gathered.
After a delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic, German experts and judges visited Lake Palcacocha and the surrounding glaciers in Huaraz in 2022 to assess the effects of climate change.
The decision sparked hope among environmental activists, who believe the case could set a precedent for "global climate justice," a political concept that argues the polluting North should compensate the South for the damages caused by pollution.
(END) AFP/JMP/MVB