Building a Climate Change Litigation Database
Recently, The Guardian reported on a case brought by a Peruvian plaintiff against German energy company RWE over fears of effects of climate change (http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/16/peruvian-farmer-demands-climate-compensation-from-german-company) in which the energy company is brought to court as a polluter. With this case, German courts will enter new territory and it remains to be seen if German law actually allows such claims to be successful. One problem in this context will be to prove causality. German law will hardly be alone with this and related problems as climate change-related damage will often not be covered by existing rules of tort law. By engaging in successful litigation against polluting companies, the price of doing business which is harmful for the climate can be increased. It will therefore be useful to collect cases on domestic climate change litigation.
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