Tracing Emissions

This chapter examines how evidence was presented in court to link RWE’s greenhouse gas emissions to global warming and its local impacts in Peru. It describes discussions about establishing a causal chain from RWE’s coal-fired power plants to global warming, then to glacial retreat, and finally to flood risk affecting Luciano Lliuya’s property. The narrative explains that while all parties agreed that fossil fuel combustion contributes to climate change, disagreements arose over the quantifiability of individual emissions. Lawyers on both sides invoked competing scientific frameworks and past legal precedents to argue whether emissions can be traced and legally attributed. This process underscores the challenges of proving cumulative environmental harm and sets the stage for a landmark test of climate litigation.